If you look at the recognized Hollywood beauties of the 20th century, it is easy to see that these women have completely different looks. Among them there are puffy blondes with rounded shapes, and slender graceful brunettes. Fashion is not constant, and the ideal of a woman's appearance has also undergone significant changes.
Symmetry fashion
Those who believe that a beautiful girl should have a thin waist or graceful ankles in ancient Greece would have to change their mind. Here, symmetrical young ladies enjoyed popularity among men. The Greeks had a canon of Polycletus, which clearly stated that the body should fit eight heads, as well as other proportions that are still used when teaching drawing.
Later, the same idea was developed by Leonardo da Vinci, calculating that the distance from the chin to the nose should be equal to the height of the ear and the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows. It was impossible to argue with mathematics, and no features of appearance turned into highlights, but remained shortcomings. However, with the advent of Christianity, ideas about the ideal figure changed. If in a well-fed and prosperous Greece, the attention of men was attracted by moderately well-fed women with elastic breasts and a small appetizing tummy, then the medieval ideal is a flat and thin girl, whose appearance did not cause lust in honorable husbands.
If we apply the da Vinci system to modern actors, it turns out that the most attractive is Meg Rhine, but Greta Garbo is lagging behind.
The bigger, the better
In the 15th century, no one else ran after girls with a ruler, but the fashion for obese women came. As the macho of that time loved to rant, a real woman should have a solid physique, broad shoulders, muscular forearms and strong legs. Now the peasant ideal is in vogue. The reason for these changes was a change in European cuisine: a lot of fatty and sweet dishes appeared in it, and beautiful ladies began to gain weight.
Renaissance paintings abound with gorgeous ladies, who were considered the most attractive at the time.
The naturalness of the revolution
After the French Revolution, it became simply dangerous to be a puffy young lady in a multi-layered dress and with a powdered face. And there was no way to powder the skin, create high hairstyles and sew expensive outfits. The fashion for Gothic, romanticism and lack of money created another ideal - a thin, pale girl with dark circles under her eyes, blood-red lips and a volume of Byron in her hands.
Back to square one
After Europe recovered from the revolutions, and the bourgeoisie became the new aristocracy, everything began to return to normal. Pretty female faces, neatly drawn eyes, hairstyles resembling buds, elegant and moderately defiant outfits have become popular again. However, the 20th century was a time of rapid change for fashion. Emancipation, wars and subsequent periods of prosperity dictated women to become thin and mobile, then broad-shouldered and athletic girlfriends to men, or fragile flowers in new-bow dresses.
The ideal of beauty is the sum of the social demands that society has for a woman. And the 21st century, no less rapid than the 20th, will surely stir up old trends more than once and bring something new.
