page_title: 1500–1550 in Western European fashion
section_title: Beauty Ideals
hierarchical_section_title: 1500–1550 in Western European fashion / Women's fashion / Beauty Ideals
context_page_description: Fashion in the period 1500–1550 in Western Europe is marked by voluminous clothing worn in an abundance of layers. Contrasting fabrics, slashes, embroidery, applied trims, and other forms of surface ornamentation became prominent. The tall, narrow lines of the late Medieval period were replaced with a wide silhouette, conical for women with breadth at the hips and broadly square for men with width at the shoulders. Sleeves were a centre of attention, and were puffed, slashed, cuffed, and turned back to reveal contrasting linings.
  Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France strove to host the most glittering renaissance court, culminating in the festivities around the Field of Cloth of Gold. But the rising power was Charles V, king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily from 1516, heir to the style as well as the riches of Burgundy, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1520. The inflow of gold and silver from the New World into recently united Spain changed the dynamics of trade throughout Western Europe, ushering in a period of increased opulence in clothing that was tempered by the Spanish taste for sombre richness of dress that would dominate the second half of the century.
context_section_description: Portraits produced during the Renaissance provide an invaluable resource for visualizing and understanding the beauty ideals of the period.  Sandro Botticelli's Venus and Mars, painted between 1480-1490 depicts Venus as the ultimate amalgamation of female physical beauty.  Her face is perfectly symmetrical, her skin is unblemished and pure white, her hair is light in colour and slightly waved, her forehead is high, her eyebrows are severely arched, her lips are red and full and her abdomen and hips protrude slightly under her thin garment. 
  Women often applied toxic substances to their faces and chests such as mercury, alum, and ceruse to lighten the skin and remove freckles.   However, these products, such as ceruse, a lead derivative, severely irritated the skin, leaving women's faces blemished and burned.  Although safer alternatives existed, women preferred the consistency and coverage offered by ceruse.   Not all cosmetics were dangerous, many women relied on lotions and balms containing almonds, olive oil, lemon juice, bread crumbs, eggs, honey, rosewater and snake fat to clarify and cleanse the skin.   Red lips and rosy cheeks were achieved primarily through the application of vermilion; ceruse mixed with organic dyes such as henna and cochineal (a powder made from the ground exoskeleton of insects).   In Italy especially, women sought to achieve the light tresses that were viewed as the ideal.  Women applied mixtures of lemon juice, alum and white wine and sat in the sun to lighten their hair.  In order to produce loose curls, women wrapped hair saturated in gum arabic or beer around clay curlers.  Finally, the appearance of a high forehead was achieved by plucking hairs along the hairline, and severely arching or removing the eyebrows altogether.  Although at this time, women could not cosmetologically alter the symmetry of their face, or the structure of their nose in order to obtain the ideal, the products available allowed them to come close.
caption: Palma, Jacopo (il Vecchio) - La Bella - c. 1525
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