Love, Beauty, and Honor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Love, Beauty, and Honor - Essay Example The image of ideal appearance also undergoes constant changes. Women who were treated as the most beautiful during baroque seem to be ugly today. Modern people do not behave the same way as they did many centuries ago. The changes in the understanding of beauty, love and honor should be analyzed in detail in order to see the development of the humanity. However, it is possible if one analyzes all the periods of art development: classical, renaissance, baroque, romanticism, realism, impressionism, post-impressionism, modern and contemporary. It is necessary to stress that the notions of love, beauty and honor are closely connected with Humanities. It is possible to research these terms and changes in them only with the help of these sciences. The latter give an opportunity to resort to the use of historical facts, literature, arts and teach us to think analytically. It is impossible to view the changes in the image of beauty, love and honor without going back to some historical facts and the works of famous artists. Otherwise, the research will be plain and unreasoned. Initially, there was no ideal image of human beauty because only gods were depicted as the best-looking creatures. Nobody could be prettier than them. The majority of artists and sculptures depicted ideal bodies of gods. They seldom used ordinary people for their works. All sculptures and pictures demonstrated ideal body because the artists applied young athletes for models. It is necessary to stress that the ideal female beauty in classical period was represented by the image of Aphrodite mentioned in Homeric writings. Practically all sculptures and paintings depicted naked people. It was quite normal for classical period. There were some changes in renaissance. It should be noted that renaissance perceptions of beauty are easily seen in Botticelli’s Venus and Mars that is placed in the National Gallery in London. Thus, an ideal beauty of renaissance should have symmetrical features of her body and face, perfect alabaster skin. One should have high forehead, pale skin, the sharply defined chin, strawberry blond hair, delicate and high eyebrows, full lips, narrow mouth and strong nose. Venus depicted by Botticelli is dressed; however, it is done so that it is easy to understand that she has ideal body. The renaissance and humanism rejected the point of view that only gods can be beautiful and viewed beauty as a consequence of harmony of proportions and rational order. Renaissance artists began to stress human sexuality. The emphasis was made on female breast. Baroque period opposed to renaissance. All the artists belonging to this period resorted to the use of clearly defined planes. There was a continuous overlapping of elements and figures. All depictions looked psychologically and physically real. More bright and dramatically colors were applied. Caravaggio is the most celebrated representative of this period. The most famous pictures are: The Rich Old Man from the Parable by Rembrandt, Cupboard by Georg Flegel, The Coronation of the Virgin by Diego Velazquez, etc. The pictures and sculptures of the artists of this period demonstrated fat bodies because they were in fashion. An ideal woman of baroque should have fat hips, blond hair and deep navel. The period of romanticism was predetermined by rococo. An ideal woman should have resemblance with china statuette. This meant having thin waist, small head, roundish hips and narrow shoulders. Women wore pompous dresses