Giusy Milintenda - La bellezza femminile: Evoluzione o involuzione di un canone estetico?The Female Beauty: Is Aesthetic Evolving or Devolving? This thesis deals with the female beauty as an aesthetic standard. The work is divided into three chapters: the first one talks about general issues of Beauty, the second one is about the female beauty’s evolution through the ages, from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, while the third one deals with the female beauty in the twentieth century and its mutation under the influence of the mass media. In the first chapter I introduce the concept of beauty. The historian and expert on beauty Cesare Ripa represents the idea of Beauty in his “Iconology by stating “It is like a shapely light skin shining man, who has technical tools and a flower in his hands, to express balance and pureness. The etymology of beauty is from Latin “bellum”, which comes from “bonellum”, the diminutive of “bonum”. It means that there is a strong relationship between the Beauty and the Good moral sense. This idea dates back to Pythagoreans, whose metaphysical theory regarded man as a microcosm, which should reflect the characteristics of a no deformity universe. The aesthetic history has been influenced by this idea for twenty centuries, so Tatarkiewicz called it as “Great Theory”. The narrower version of that wants the Beauty like ratio between parts, expressed by simple numbers. Pythagoreans called it “pentagram”. It also recurs in musicology as Harmony and in visual arts as Symmetry. Since artists applied optical corrections, it is called Eurhythmy. On the contrary, Plotinus believes that Beauty is splendor. Objects which are not made of parts, like gold or fire, shine of their own light. They have aura. Socrates uses the description of Achilles’ shield. It is a heavy and decorated, but unfit to be used in war. However, in this context, beauty is what makes objects useful their appropriateness. Batteux, another expert in beauty, was the first to associate Beauty to Art in his work “Les Beaux – Arts réduits à un même principe”. Art has to represent nature well, improved by technique. The best example is Zeusi’s myth: he was an artist who painted Helen. He did not use a female model only, but the seven most beautiful girls from Crotone. He did not want to paint a beauty existing in nature, but the ideal beauty. Winckelmann also believes that the best example of beauty were the Greeks, because they represented nature better than anyone before. Lessing, too, divides arts into Fine Arts and Literary Arts, because he thinks that literary work can represent at the same time Ugly and Beauty. On the contrary, Fine Arts can allow only Beauty. Another division is made by Herder, who believes that visual arts are misleading, but it is not the same for plastic arts. The latter, as a matter of fact, are enjoyed by slow touch and must represent Beauty; visual arts, instead, are enjoyed by the speed view and also accept subjects that are not beautiful. In the second chapter I describe how the standard of Beauty has changed at the same time as social events. The most important aspects of Beauty have been associated with the female figure, exteriorly but also morally beautiful in the Renaissance, shining in the courts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and suitable to her needs in the nineteenth century. Women dominate the political and cultural landscape of the Renaissance, but this is only possible for the aristocrats. At that time, the word courtier referred to man of court, instead of this courtesan meant a prostitute. As a result, it was important for women of the Renaissance to maintain a good reputation and to obey the moral rules. The symbol of beauty in the 1500s is a curvy Venus. Attention is focused on the upper part of the body, the lower is covered by clothes. Women start wearing make – up, especially to cover facial flaws. First, the experts of the times, Trissino and Firenzuola, wrote treatises on female beauty. As Zeusi, they both use the most beautiful characteristics of several women to describe the perfect Beauty. The female shape is, however, divided into parts and deprived of arms and legs, forcing immobility. Women are compared to Chimera and Medusa, who are monstrous bodies that can impair male power. Half a century later, the same issue is dealt in "De la Beauté" by a French writer De Minut. In the seventeenth century, especially in the French court, women become more confident and start to have influence on policy decisions. The keyword is politesse. Moreover, women are no longer angelic and her interiority is more important. Nevertheless, art continues to give importance to the upper body, especially to the eyes. An example is the "Girl with the Red Hat" by Vermeer or Charles Le Brun’s work in which he states that only the eyes moved by passion have light. In the eighteenth century, women have more freedom: not only does she go out to pray in church, but she can also go to concerts and attend the philosophical lounges where there are Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. Neverthless, education is an end in itself: woman must first be a wife and a mother, she has a Junoesque physique, she is tall and well – shaped, the waist is narrow and make – up is used to have pale skin. Women use pompous wigs and her clothes are characterized by tight corsets and full skirts. The nineteenth century is the age of Romanticism: Delacroix and Friedrich portray women with thoughtful faces and melancholy eyes. Women’s interiority is more important. Now, women are represented with narrower hips, which symbolise that not only are they considered as a part, but as a body in its totality as well. Baudelaire coins the word "maquillage" in 1859, not only to show make – up as a way to correct the flaws, but also to enhance beauty. There is a new Woman at this point in time: the Parisian woman is active, free and fashionable, dedicated to the literary activity. For this reason, she is subject to much criticism, but it is thanks to women like Georges Sand wearing men's clothes, that social barriers are pulled down. However, in the second half of the nineteenth century women become demoniac, without morality, which endangers man’s masculinity. This type of woman is painted by Manet and described by Zola. Nudity spreads in art. Women are represented naked if associated with allegory, e.g. the "Liberty Leading the People", by Delacroix. Towards the end of the century, erotic photography and the pictures of the Moulin Rouge’s dancers come out. The beauty model changes also thanks to the American culture, to Hollywood’s cinema and Broadway’s theatres. Women are no longer a decoration: they are free and confident in themselves. In the third chapter I show how the twentieth century is an era of important historical events, that is to say the two World Wars, Industrialization and Mass Societies and how this affects women. She works, she is engaged in politics, free from constrictions and prohibitions. In this century, the female body undergoes many changes: during the First World War woman is mother and wife, working at the factory instead of her husband who fights at the front. She takes less care of her body, until 1920 when it becomes lean and androgynous. This woman has a magnetic gaze, she is a vamp, and cruel temptress. This type of woman has inspired many writers, such as Baudelaire in "Les fleurs du mal" or Oscar Wilde in "Salomè", D'Annunzio in "The Triumph of Death", and also artists like Klimt in “Judith I” and “Judith II”. The new woman abandons corsets to wear softer high – waisted dresses. Even her hairstyle changes: the tomboy haircut spreads. During Fascism, Mussolini invites women to have children and so they are again prosperous. Fascism is against make – up, fashion, intellectual life and unprejudiced women. Despite the socio – political influences, women never stop taking care of their bodies. Coco Chanel encourage women to be freer, to perform physical activities, to go to the beach and sunbathe. Advertisement shows suntan oils and scales for weight control. Cellulite is discovered by doctors and women try to remove it at any cost. Cinema also offers models of female beauty such as Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford, but especially the Hollywood diva Joan Harlow who has curly platinum blonde hair. Beauty contests spread, and there are polemics because it seems that women are considered an object. Models of pin – ups and stars come from America; they are curvy women with breast, waist and hips, the perfect measurements are 90 – 60 – 90 cm. This model of woman dominates the scene up to the appearance of the slanky and chic movie star Audrey Hepburn, that is to say up to the end of the twentieth century. Instead, in the third millennium advertising, fashion, cinema and social networks show patterns of extreme thinness, plastic surgery, excessive physical fitness and strict unsustainable diets. This gives society a kind of serial production of women, such as Marilyn by Andy Warhol. Today, women lose their uniqueness to satisfy social models, to be accepted by others and to be successful. In conclusion, it can be said that artefact replaces nature at any cost.
Nicola Perullo
