It's easy to forget that the present standard of attractiveness, particularly of women, is a creation of the last thirty years. Prior to the "British invasion" of the early 1960s, standards of feminine beauty tended toward the buxom. But in 1965, a waiflike model known as Twiggy became what would later come to be called a "supermodel" -- an icon who was used in hundreds of magazine fashion photos in Europe and the United States. The buxom, mature figures that had been considered beautiful throughout history were suddenly unattractive, and women began to strive to look like a ninety pound fashion model who more closely resembled a skinny twelve year old girl than a grown woman. The clothes she modeled went along with it -- short childlike dresses and micro miniskirts -- clothing that you had to be an emaciated war orphan to wear successfully.
It is interesting to note that 1965 is the same year that The Pill, the first practically fail-safe birth control method, was made available to the general public, sparking the sexual revolution of the Sixties. It might be reasoned that the image of woman as a childlike sexual plaything arose out of the phenomenon of "sex without consequences".
But it hasn't always been this way. For centuries, the standard of feminine beauty was that of a fertile, buxom woman. Artists have glorified the buxom female form since art began, starting with the various "Venus" figurines of ancient fertility cults through the "Vargas Girls" who graced many a calendar and bomber nose during World War II.
Let's take a mini-tour of art works from all eras (but in no particular order!), to get those notions of feminine beauty away from the present ideal of a six foot, 110 pound supermodel!
Botticelli's The Birth of Venus was painted to represent
the goddess of erotic love. Note the thickness of the waist, the
rounded belly and arms! Venus was considered the epitome of
feminine beauty, both by the ancient Greeks and by Renaissance
painters, and so would have been depicted as the "ideal
woman". Note the even fuller (possibly pregnant?) figure on
the diaphanously gowned woman waiting to enfold her in the robe.
Bougereau was noted for his realism as well as the sentimentality of much of his work. He achieves an almost photographic quality in his painting Seated Nude (1884)(note the reflection of the model's foot in the lower right corner), so we can assume that this is an accurate representation of an artist's model of the time. There isn't a rib or hipbone showing! She'd never make it into Vogue . . . but who cares?
Auguste Renoir once said "There is enough ugliness in the world -- why should we paint ugly pictures?" So, this young lady, the subject of Seated Bather (1883-1884) certainly wasn't what he considered ugly! She fits the lush, rounded style of Renoir's era.
This painting by Pablo
Picasso always makes me smile, just for the sheer joy and fun of
it! Bet you thought that Picasso only painted what looked like
bits of people all stuck together the wrong way? That was only
one of his artistic periods.
Though the perspective and proportions are deliberately skewed, and this is not an attempt at realism, these women are definitely of "heroic" proportions.
Another Picasso, a bit less skewed from realism, though still stylized -- another buxom, statuesque woman.
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec was noted for his many drawings and paintings of theatrical performers in Paris during the late 1800s. This painting, Cha-U-Kao Fastening Her Bodice (1895), is typical of these renderings. The subject, a female clown, is definitely a large, strong woman.
Gustave Klimt is considered one of the foremost definers of the Art Nouveau movement, which emphasised use of sensuous curving lines and forms. There is nothing "supermodel-like" about his Danae (1907). Her thigh is much more familiar to most women than the thin, tubelike thighs that are considered attractive now!
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