Sexy Foreheads: Proof that Beauty Standards Change but People’s Reactions to them Don’t
I was looking at the Esoterica thumbnail for ‘How Witchcraft Skepticism produced the lesser Key of Solomon,’ and I was struck by the woman’s face. Her hair was pulled way back, and her forehead and hair is covered by a transparent veil.
Her head is just incredibly long. It’s really noticeable.
This is from a painted portrait, painted on purpose. It makes her look a bit like an alien, and the painter was paid good money for his work. His name was Rogier van der Weyden, and the painting is called Portrait of a Lady. We have no idea who he painted, but she was in the Burgundian Court and clearly got everyone’s attention.
Take a look:
Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Lady, c. 1460 (nga.gov)
We have to assume she approved of how she was depicted. After all, either she commissioned it or someone who really liked her did.
So, why the emphasis on the alien-hybrid look?
The high forehead was considered attractive. When someone listed, from head to toe, what the ideal woman looked like between 1100 and 1500 or so, a high forehead was first on the list.
This even inspired a story about a man whose wife had just died. He asked a priest where she was. He had thought she was naturally the most beautiful person, and the priest felt called upon to puncture the man’s dreams by telling him she was in hell and was right then being stuck with dozens of needles. Her crime was plucking her hairline back to fit the standard of beauty.
Now, brighter folks than I have pointed out the paradox of praising women primarily for being pretty and then shaking your finger at them for thinking about what they look like.
Here’s the thing: Medieval philosophers were shallow. Great philosophers of the time were ‘judging the book by the cover’ types for the same reason that plants were supposed to look like the body part they cured. You remember how often Albertus Magnus harped on Nature’s perfection and such. The world revolved around us, and we should be able to see how good a person is by how pretty they are.
The Beauty Ideal
So, they arbitrarily decided that a certain shape of forehead (along with big hips, high small breasts, a certain shape of nose, and a narrow range of hair color, from blonde to red) indicated inner goodness.
Look, there is no good reason that looking like an alien-hybrid would be attractive. It doesn’t contribute to anything physical, and it is just something that takes time in the morning to do and thus indicates someone who has servants to do the morning routine for them. Come to think of it, since medieval philosophers frequently assumed aristocrats were purer than peasants, that might actually have checked out for them.
Whatever the ‘reasoning,’ really high foreheads were praised for their beauty for a couple centuries, and we can certainly do it again. Why the ever-loving hell not? It’s not like non-existent eyebrows or particularly small feet haven’t already had their day in the sun.
Source:
The Medievalist Podcast ‘Once and Future Sex with Eleanor Janega’