The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-01-10
Types of Beauty.
(Chicago Tribune.l

Chicago Tribune)
In all times the first thing demanded
of a woman has been that she be beau
tiful.
There are only two things in this
world truly worthy of admiration anC
alteration" said Veron the man o.
genius and a beautiful woman" The
evolution Of civil progress has led u:
little by little to eXalt other virtues OF
the daughters of Eve, but so long as
men viii populate our planet, beauty
will be the primary feminine attrac-
tion.
Every race has had a general con-
ception of beauty which embraces al
women, and a special conception which
relates only to the women of its spe-
cies. Each race has its own divers
types, while all humanity has its gen.
eral criterion for womanly loneliness.
However the esthetic tastes of divers
peoples may vary about women, they
are all of one accord in looking for the
two essential things which form the
real skeleton of her beauty:
Youthfulness, with health.
Apparent and certain femininity.
Excessive slimness and excessive cor
pulence are homely, not only because
they violate the fundamental laws of
biology and of symmetry, but also be-
cause they are two pathological con-
ditions. When an elderly woman APP
pears beautiful it is because she, has
preserved some attribute of youth that
casts an illusionsover us; the freshness
of her skin, the roundness of her fig
ure, and the vivacity Of her eye. Be
sides health. woman must have char
acteristically feminine outlines. l have
studied the Venuses of nearly all the
of E11rnnp I
fer, in spite of the defects of time, is
the Venus of Medici, my Venus of pre-
objection. Her figure presents such
fieXibility and such a harmony of
curves, such perfection of form, that it
gives me the impression that nothing
can surpass it, and that a more beau
tiful creature never left the hands
either of nature or of genius.
The most salient of the minor beau
ties of woman are:
Long, thick hair, curling or straight;
black, blond or brown.
nimples on the cheeks, either perma-
nent or appearing with the smile. A
dimple on the chin. Dimples on the
back of the palms.
Ruddy lips.
Azure and filiform veins, transparent
beneath the skin of the neck and
cheek.
Between the blond type and the bru-
nette type there is a long chain of
varying colorings, which unite the Op-
posite poles of feminine beauty. In
any of them beauty can manifest its
triumphs and certain women of the
chestnut type are splendid creatures.
A blue eye always presents cold and
serene expression, which is given
warmth by the gilded tresses, which
invite caresses, but if this cold eye
appears beneath dark head of hair it |
assumes a sinister aspect. On the |
contrary. when hair of gold frames the |
windows of the soul and the latter are !
dark and velvety, the profound volup- |
tuousness of the brunette is added to |
the gentler love lines of the blond.
The fundamental lines of feminine !
beauty combined with the secondary |
features constitute divers types which !
satisfy the esthetic sense each in their |
own way.
have noted several principal types:
The classical beauty is the triumph of |
symmetry; it is the harmony Of lines
and curves I have termed a. classic
as a synonym Of antiquity: it might
equally well be called Greek, because no
people have comprehended this form
better than the Greeks. The works of
Greek painters and sculptors are
witness that no one in history has even
known how to represent more beautiful
or more perfect forms. This type
might be called sculptural, because
sculpture better than painting can rep
resent the fundamental elemtnts of hu-
man beauty. a painting gives only the
surface; a statue gives the three di-
mansions of the body that it repre-
sents. The classic beauty, formed
above all by perfect harmony of lines,
all perspectives. The wo-
man who possesses it is beautiful from
every viewpoint. No race more than
the Anglo-Saxon presents so many
specimens of classic beauty. 1t is also
found in Italy upon the neighboring
hills Of Rome. al Venice, and at Paler-
mo. Raphael has certainly been the
best Interpreter Of classic beauty.
The sensuous type of beauty is con-
stituted by predominance of the sens
lous lines and by the saillie of the lips.
Curving lines and eXuberant adiposity
the type. 1t is a type much
appreciated by the people of Asia and
Africa. Correggio and Rubens often
depicted this type although by differ
ant methods. We find good examples
n Holland and Spain, also in Italy, be-
sides the Orient.
The beauty of gracefulness is char
scterized more by the expression of the
eatureS than by their symmetry. 1t
s designed less by the skeleton than by
he surface While classic beauty, the
srchtype of all forms of beauty. re-
spends to the highest human ideality,
his inspires admiration by its graceful
luality. which satisfies our pride and
aXcites our tenderness. Often the
graceful type violates laws of symmet-
v. but the secondary beauties. and, | !
above ALL the elegance of the move
nents puts 1t on an equal with the
'lassic beauty which we often admire
without being fascinated. / said that
race satisfies our pride; it's grace that
exercises beauty's powerful influence.
ABSOLUTE beauty eXerts tyranny, which :
places all other forms below itself. In
he beauty of grace there is a desire | ]
o please, and exquisite form of perfect
'oquetry. Grace is often the effect
# art coming to correct the faults of
lature. Beyond a question the women
# France are the most graceful of the
)ccident. !
Classic beauty, sensuous beauty, and
he beauty of grace are certainly the
hree fundamental and elementary
orms of feminine beauty.
Besides these types there are hun !
reds of others; but they are complex
orms of these, into which, besides es-
hetic elements, properly speaking,
mere enter other beauties of a psychic
rder. To describe them all would be
ne work Of a lifetime or of many life
because no man, even though a