Elizabethan beauty ideals

Back in the day beauty ideals were completely different than what it is now, most of us understand beauty as tanned glowing skin, big defined lips, long black eye lashes and definitely not frizzy hair. In Elizabethan era the beauty icon was Elizabeth 1, her pale skin emphasized with even more pale make up powder which was made out of ceruse, an ointment made out of white lead and vinegar this way making her face look like a white mask, however this was a sign of beauty, a sign of wealth only the wealthiest people could afford such 'make-up', people who were not rich could be identified by their tanned skin because they had to work outside all day this way preventing them from maintaining pale 'iconic' skin. The make up that Elizabeth 1 was using for her face also came with disadvantages, it caused her a lot of skin diseases which resulted in her faces being burnt and very damaged. To hide all the imperfections she kept applying more and more of the face powder without knowing that its destroying her face.To emphases her lips and cheeks she used mercuric sulfide, this chemical gave her a vermilion color which was loved by the queen. Another beauty ideal in Elizabethan era was having a big forehead or in other words high hairline, she had her hair plucked to achieve the desired look of a bigger forehead it gave her aristocratic look which also was a sign of beauty. Kohl was also used to emphases the queens beauty, they used it to define her eyes and sometimes used substance like belladonna to brighten up the eyes. Having light hair was one of the beauty ideals back in that day, women including Elizabeth used urine to lighten up the hair which now for us seems like a very disgusting way to achieve the lighter hair, but that's a sign of how desperate the women were just to achieve this look. If this method did not work they then used wigs which was far more simple and quicker way to have a desired hair color. Queen Elizabeth 1 was the beauty icon of her era, women tried to imitate her beauty as much as they could, all the women wanted to be seen as beautiful just like their worshiped queen.

To find as much information about Elizabethan era beauty ideals I have looked in the library as well as internet. I have cited 'The Elizabethans' by Wilson A.N. London: Arrow Books 2012, also 'The Elizabethan World' by Doran,Susan; Jones, Norman L, London: Routledge 2014, and website http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-make-up.htm.

Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was a famous painter, she existed during the Elizabethan era, I chose this portrait because it is very fascinating, the woman in the paining is Mary Megdalene. This painter wanted to paint Mary Magdalene in a gold dress (gold color was very popular in Elizabethan era, Queen Elizabeth 1 herself wore a lot of clothing and jewelry in gold). This gold dress in the painting to me symbolizes luxury and wealthiness, however I love the idea that Mary Magdalene put her hand on her chest, showing that she is in pain or something is worrying her. Her hair is very curled just like Queen Elizabeth 1 liked back in her era. In the painting you can see how she is blushing and has minimal make up as well as pale skin those are all the signs of beauty. This painting was painted in 1620 and remains in Palatina Gallery.