When searching for research on Elizabethan makeup I came across a book 'Cosmetics in Shakespearean and renaissance drama'. After reading a few chapters, I came across a poem that interested me. It was written in the late 17th century however it refers back to Elizabethan times and how women used make-up to change the appearance of their faces.
"In a satirical poem called ‘A Paradox of a Painted Face’, written in the mid-seventeenth century, the author demonstrates the multivocality of the cultural attitude towards cosmetics by emphasising the contemporary attraction to painted faces, while using terms like ‘cunning’, ‘deceive’ and ‘fraud’ to demonstrate their association with hypocrisy:
This extract from the book speaks of how women's make-up was to be kept secret from men as they weren't to know of their 'deception'. It is similar today in that women feel the need to hide all of their imperfections from men but do so discreetly like that awkward first few weeks/months with a new partner when women feel the need to wake up early in order to sneakily apply a bit of powder etc. Dont lie we've all done it! But I find it quite comical that women feel the need to do this now as they did back then to "hide it from their suitors".
I salute you bridesmaids!
http://www.anyclip.com/movies/bridesmaids/morning-with-ted/#!locations/
In conclusion it is clear that even though centuries have passed beauty is still important to women, looking the way you desire to look creates a certain confidence and women are still searching for our own personal perfection, but is perfection ever obtainable?
Book Reference: Karim-Cooper. F (2006) Cosmetics in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama.(Online) Edinburgh University Press. Available from: http://universitypublishingonline.org/edinburgh/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780748627127&cid=CBO9780748627127A026
"In a satirical poem called ‘A Paradox of a Painted Face’, written in the mid-seventeenth century, the author demonstrates the multivocality of the cultural attitude towards cosmetics by emphasising the contemporary attraction to painted faces, while using terms like ‘cunning’, ‘deceive’ and ‘fraud’ to demonstrate their association with hypocrisy:
The Fucus and Cerusse which on thy faceIt is a familiar paradox that painted beauty is alluring, but the attraction to artifice is slightly dubious on religious as well as on poetical grounds. A desire for deception, is implicit in the attraction to painted faces, and in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, painted artifice was a powerful material reminder of the human need for aesthetic pleasure. Thus there is a dialogical relationship between aesthetics and deception, which means that face painting can be viewed as an art form unto itself. Ovid, read widely in the Renaissance, instructs ladies in his Art of Love to use cosmetics to correct their natural deficiencies, but he tells them that they must hide it from their suitors, suggesting that it is their deception or artifice to which the potential suitors are attracted: ‘Why must I know the cause of the whiteness of your cheek? Shut your chamber door: why show the unfinished work? There is much that it befits men not to know; most of your doings would offend, did you not hide them within’."
Thy cunning hand layes on to add more grace,
Deceive me with such pleasing fraud, that I
Find in thy Art what can in Nature lye.
This extract from the book speaks of how women's make-up was to be kept secret from men as they weren't to know of their 'deception'. It is similar today in that women feel the need to hide all of their imperfections from men but do so discreetly like that awkward first few weeks/months with a new partner when women feel the need to wake up early in order to sneakily apply a bit of powder etc. Dont lie we've all done it! But I find it quite comical that women feel the need to do this now as they did back then to "hide it from their suitors".
I salute you bridesmaids!
http://www.anyclip.com/movies/bridesmaids/morning-with-ted/#!locations/
In conclusion it is clear that even though centuries have passed beauty is still important to women, looking the way you desire to look creates a certain confidence and women are still searching for our own personal perfection, but is perfection ever obtainable?
Book Reference: Karim-Cooper. F (2006) Cosmetics in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama.(Online) Edinburgh University Press. Available from: http://universitypublishingonline.org/edinburgh/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780748627127&cid=CBO9780748627127A026
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