What was beautiful during the renaissance

The upper-class sophisticate sought a high hairline, since a wide and high forehead was an essential trait of beauty during that era. Many women, who were not graced with a naturally high forehead plucked their hairlines in order to get the desired effect. Blondes were the epitome of beauty during this era and, therefore highly sought after. That forced women with darker locks to come up with a mechanism to lighten the hair. Saffron and onion skin dyes, as well as elements like alum, sulfur, and soda, were commonly used for this purpose.

However, most of these products did not work alone. They required lengthy hours in the hot sun, which served as the heating mechanism that activated the bleach. The process was tricky because women also wanted to keep their skin pale and untouched by the sun.

Therefore, they had to sit outside for hours in heavy clothing to protect their skin and hats to protect their faces. Unfortunately, these bleaching processes were by no means perfect and often led to some rather unusual shades of hair color, ranging anywhere from platinum blonde to a carrot-top red.

Additionally, the bleaching process often severely damaged the hair, leaving it dry, brittle, and prone to easy breakage. Some women opted to simply hide their hairlines and darker locks under jeweled turbans or caps, which were popular at the time. Others found that the elaborate headdresses of the era allowed them to hide their lack of a high forehead while also accentuating their wealth and station in life.

Under their head covering most Renaissance women pulled their hair back tight against the skin and braided it, oftentimes in very elaborate designs. Those who were essentially happy with their hairlines and the color of their hair sometimes decorated their hair anyway with precious jewels, pearls, ribbons, and hair combs.

A few even opted for shimmering veils atop the highly peaked hats that were so popular at the time. French women, not to be outdone by anyone, and not wishing to conform to the norm, liked to pulverize flowers into a powder form which they mixed with a glue-like substance to use in their hair.

Sometimes the powders were plain white but often they were colored in shades of yellow, pink, and blue. Cosmetics in the Renaissance Era included powders made from white lead, mercury, and vermilion derived from cinnabar. Women in this era highly valued pallor. Cheeks also remained fair but needed to give off a bit of a glow. Mercury was sometimes added to the white lead powder and rubbed into the cheek area in order to achieve the necessary effect.

Some Renaissance women also used white lead powder, laced with mercury, to accent their bust lines. Since high, wide foreheads were prized, women often pumiced that area to hide any evidence of tweezed hairlines and to assure that no lines cracked the serenity of their brow. Eyebrows needed to remain light and airy, so they were often tweezed or even cut to make certain that they were not overly prominent. Eyelashes were short and thin. Vermilion was commonly used on the lips, which could either be left natural or tinted to full, highly defined, and luscious red color.

The clothing of the Renaissance era changed depending upon the social standing of the wearer. Bodices were often unstructured but still dipped a bit at the neckline to allow even these women to show their voluptuous curves. Skirts were generally gathered and sleeves were close fitting. The length of the garments were ankle length, rather than fully floor length.

The whole structure and design of the garment was aimed at ease of movement in doing the numerous daily chores. Women from the lower castes, including servants, wore caps of some kind.

These were typically close caps of durable linen - much like the fabric of their clothing. These covered their hairlines but allowed their hair to flow free down their back. Underneath the outer garment, Renaissance women almost always wore some kind of an under-dress, which was called a chemise.

The skirts of these undergarments tended to be free-flowing but the bodice was often strong, if not formally corseted. The higher the class level of the woman, the more elaborate the undergarment generally was. Those in the wealthiest positions often wore corsets and pantaloons instead of a chemise. Either way, the fabric for the undergarments of the wealthy was generally of a much higher quality fabric.

In some instances, undergarments also served as one layer of dress. It was not uncommon for women of this era to wear as many as three to five layers of clothing. Take for instance the famous Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione, which describes the characteristics of the perfect courtier and the perfect court lady. An ideal courtier was a scholar as well as an athlete, educated in Greek, Latin, history, and rhetoric, and able to wrestle, hunt and play tennis.

He should be a good soldier, a great councilor, a comedian and a musician — the list of requirements goes on and on, page after page. All that is necessary is that he is neither too small nor too big, and strong and agile enough to be a warrior. This description of the perfect man of the court stands in sharp contrast with the requirements for the perfect court lady.

Women need to be well-mannered and educated enough to entertain men with conversation, but there is no need for them to be knowledgeable of politics and war, and practicing a sport and making jokes are even deemed inappropriate.

The one thing that holds no particular value for the male courtier, however, is of paramount importance for the court lady: beauty. For women, however, good looks were even more essential, as beauty was one of the few things that could enhance their status in society.

Sources like these, together with works of art, tell us that beauty standards included blonde hair, rosy lips, a pale, hairless skin, white teeth and small breasts. The full array of these beauty requirements often went beyond the reach of ordinary women.

In another blog, recently updated , I discussed the ways in which women tried to reduce the size of their breasts. In this blog, I will focus on makeup and other beauty products. These recipes are not exclusively targeted at women: some of them aim to whiten the teeth or dye white hair black again, while many others promise to cure hairloss and boldness. Women were praised for their natural features and body types. The ideal woman was that on the more voluptuous side, paintings from the Renaissance period often focused on women who would today be considered overweight.

Her bust would appear full of no signs of bones. The ideal female would also have pale skin, unlike the tanned look that is popular in our modern day. To accompany this desired skin was blond hair, which made women appear more youthful than dark locks. Women with delicate features were prized as far as facial features were concerned.

They would have soft features such as large eyes, a high forehead, thin eyebrows, curly hair and pink cheeks. A small mouth and well-defined nose were also very desired.

Just like in society today, while natural women were sought after, those who did not meet the standings, were pressed to try and fit a specific image. High foreheads were largely favored as it was a sign of intelligence, and because of this many woman would pluck their foreheads to recede the hairline making their foreheads appear bigger. They would pluck their eyebrows thin and use lead pencils to fill them in. Other women who decided to not pluck their hairlines or lighten their hair would instead wear jeweled caps or turbans, which were quite popular at the time.

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