The Ideal Beauty

The inscription said: “VIRTVTEM FOR MADECORAT”, which means “beauty adorns virtue”. Just like in Ghirlandaio’s portrait, Leonardo is suggesting and praising the importance of virtue and how closely it is connected to beauty. Even though these two portraits date from different time periods, the theme of virtue and beauty still remains present in both. It seems as Leonardo da Vinci was already familiar and looking up to Ghirlandaio, which can be thought by the method of having a reverse side of the painting. Both followed Testa’s ‘’laws’’ of the virtue and beauty a woman has to posses and both included two quotes referring this theme.

Renaissance art, the culture of art and architecture evolved in the 14-16th century in Florence. Artwork was based on a structure to show human perfection. Examples such as Leonardo Da Vinci’s and Michelangelo art show the artistic implications of what ancient Greeks thought of beauty. The Greeks idealized beauty in terms of forms and applied it in their art, which by the time of the Renaissance, began to incorporate it in a more realistic approach. Michelangelo used the Greek belief of perfect beauty and the newly emerging realistic viewpoint on art to create an image of a near god-like beauty.

Her toilette displays both materialistic goods and religious symbols, providing equal importance to both aspects of her identity. Pope uses Belinda as a symbol for women during the 18th century; she conforms to societal pressures by remaining both beautiful and chaste, a duality which creates a contradictory identity. Belinda’s toilette scene displays importance because it introduces the duality of beauty and piety. Pope first accomplishes this by heightening the significance of her getting ready by making it into a religious event. Pope describes her vanity as an “altar” and the act of getting ready as “…the sacred Rites of Pride” (I, 127).

In Greek religion and mythology, Aphrodite, the Goddess of love, beauty, and fertility is very well looked up to. According to The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, from an unknown author, Aphrodite is said to be the most kind and gentle of all the Goddesses (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th edition 1). Aphrodite’s Roman equivalent is the Goddess Venus, who is also the Goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. Aphrodite, the Goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, was very well known in the Mythological world. There are many myths about how Aphrodite was conceived, although there are two more popular myths of how it happened.

Through the exploration of this diverse range portraiture, the contrasting ideals of masculine and feminine beauty in the Renaissance have been explored. Yet overall, no matter what the gender orientation of the subject, it the discovery of such passionate and artistic talent presented which is essentially ‘beautiful’. Consequently, the grand appeal of such glorious images is still appreciated today, and will continue to delight viewers for generations to come. Bibliography Paola Tingali Women in Italian Renaissance Art (Manchester 1997) Geraldine A. Johnson & Sara Greico Picturing Women in Renaissance and Baroque Italy (Cambridge 1997) Patricia Simons Portraiture: Facing the Subject ed Woodhall (Manchester 1997) Lorne Campbell Renaissance Portraits (Yale 1990) Alison Cole Art of the Italian Renaissance Courts (Everyman Art Library 1997)

Moreover, her “classic face” (7) further elucidates to her extreme beauty. Poe provides sensory elements to emphasize her physical beauty i.e. hyacinth, a bold smelling flower. The speaker noting Helen as “statue-like” serves as a way to say her beauty will last forever, seeing her as perfection. Furthermore, Helen is compared to Psyche, who was turned a goddess by her beauty that infatuated Cupid.

Beauty and the Divine in Edgar Allen Poe's To Helen To Helen presents beauty as necessary for apprehending the divine. Poe celebrates beauty, specifically the beauty of a women, as represented by two women known for beauty in Greek legend (Helen of Troy and Psyche). Helen's beauty escorts him to Hellenistic culture and values, which brings him to Psyche, who illuminates the divine. To Helen by Edgar Allan Poe Helen, thy beauty is to me Like those Nicean barks of yore, That gently, o'er a perfumed sea, The weary, way-worn wanderer bore To his own native shore On desperate seas long wont to roam, Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, The Naiad airs have brought me home To the glory that was Greece, And the grandeur that was Rome. Lo!

This particular Kore has a fairly striking large nose, it also appears that her lips curve upward into a smile, while it looks as if she’s wearing some sort of head wrap that goes across her head covering both of her ears. Her features are similar to the well-known famous group of sculptures by the Acropolis in Athens. The unknown sculptor constructed this Kore out of marble which was common in Ancient Kore Greek statues. The Kore shows Roman admiration for early Greek art; the statue is created with outstanding quality. Kores were votive offerings to Athena originally, but were soon seen as gifts for all Goddess.

The Greeks thought of her as playful, sweet, kind, and trusting. Along with Ganymede, Hebe acted as a cupbearer to the Gods of Olympus ( Hunt 2 ). The portrayal of the goddesses in many myths was that of a beautiful and majestic creature which contained many aspects to her personality. These personalities live on today through stories in the forms of poems, myths, and epic tales. Modern movies, art, and literature help to show these creations of the Greeks in powerful along with interesting ways.

The classical is the the creativity of the Greek that combined the resources, peace time period, and the ideal based on the Greek culture. These classical ideal showed the different world of art, architecture, the philosophy and they used the inherent abilities to created the beautiful mind, beautiful body. Firstly, the classical ideas of Greek architectures included Doric order, Ionic order and Corinthian order. The structures based on 3 main divisions that are the Stepped platform, the Column, and the Entablature. The Stepped platform can be the stereobate and stylobate, the column contained the doric, shaft, flutes, capital, echinus, and abacus, the entablature includes all the horizontal elements that rest on the columns.