In terms of its changeability, fashion is second only to the weather, although this is a controversial issue. Moreover, fashion is changing not only in clothes, styles or accessories, but also in women's beauty. A recognized beauty of one era, half a century later can be considered ugly (but you and I know that ugly women can not be). At all times, artists responded very sensitively to the whims of fashion, since they always strived to depict the most beautiful women of their era.

Ancient Greece and Rome

Unfortunately, o feminine ideals Antiquity must be judged by frescoes and sculptures, full-fledged paintings not preserved. IN Ancient Greece standard female beauty The goddess Aphrodite, a curvaceous lady with long thick red hair, was considered. This is exactly how she is depicted in the painting “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli, although created already in 1485. IN Ancient Rome valued beauty most of all female face, and the splendor of forms was in second place. For example, the painting “Proserpina” (1874) by Dante Rossetti was created with this in mind.

Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, one could be sent to the stake for praising female beauty, so there is no artistic evidence left. Demonstrate female figure was strictly prohibited. Clothing had to completely hide the body, and hair was hidden under hats. The standard of female beauty were holy women who devoted themselves to serving God.

Renaissance

The Renaissance is so named due to the revival of interest in the ideals of Antiquity, including in matters of female beauty. Wide hips, full body, elongated face, healthy complexion - this is how the first beauty of the 15th-16th centuries should have looked. This is exactly how women are depicted in the paintings of Sandro Botticelli, Raphael Santi and Michelangelo. The ideal of beauty of the Renaissance can be called the Italian Simonetta Vespucci, who is depicted in several paintings by Botticelli “Spring” (1478), “Birth of Venus” (1485), “Portrait of a Young Woman” (1485). During the Renaissance, high foreheads were in fashion, and to achieve this effect, fashionistas shaved their eyebrows and hairline. This is clearly visible in the famous painting “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Baroque era

In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the ideal of female beauty was white-skinned women (tanning was considered the lot of peasant women) with small breasts, tiny legs, a pale face, but with curvy hips. In addition, any aristocrat had to have a high, complex hairstyle. These fashion trends clearly visible in the portrait of Louis XIV's favorite Madame de Montespan (1670) by Pierre Mignard. It belongs to this period famous work John Vermeer's "Woman with a Pearl Earring" (1665).

Rococo era

If in the picture the woman looks more like a porcelain doll, surrounded by fans, umbrellas, muffs and gloves, then we can safely say that we're talking about about the Rococo era. At the beginning of the 18th century, “mild anorexia” came into fashion: female beauty became fragile, with narrow hips, small breasts, and sunken cheeks. There is evidence that to achieve the effect of “sunken cheeks”, some ladies removed their side teeth, leaving only the front ones - beauty requires sacrifice. The canons of beauty of the Rococo era are perfectly illustrated by portraits of François Boucher, for example “Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour” (1756).

Romantic era

Only in the second half of the 19th century did natural blush, healthy freshness and roundness of shape once again become the standards of female beauty. And the most attractive part of the female body is the rounded shoulders, which were simply necessary for any beauty to expose. It is precisely these women that are found in the paintings of Adolphe Bouguereau, such women were depicted by the first impressionists (“The Birth of Venus” by Bouguereau, “The Great Bathers” by Renoir, “The Blue Dancers” by Degas).

Early 20th century

“Russian Venus”, “Merchant's Wife at Tea”, “Girl on the Volga” by Boris Kustodiev perfectly illustrate the canons of beauty of the early 20th century. Everything that romanticism admired in a woman became even more magnificent and weighty. 20-40 years of the twentieth century

Mid-20th century

Marilyn Monroe became the ideal of female beauty in the middle of the last century. A short blonde, without any excesses in the direction of thinness or plumpness. The founder of pop art, Andy Warhol, willingly used her image in his works.
Talk about further development ideals of female beauty, especially in their connection with painting, are not yet worthwhile. It is only necessary to note that history is developing in a circle, and thinness and sickness are coming back into fashion.

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First of all, we know two things about the painting: its author and, possibly, the history of the canvas. But we don’t know much about the fates of those who look at us from the canvases.

website I decided to talk about women whose faces are familiar to us, but their stories are not.

Zhanna Samari
Auguste Renoir, Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary, 1877

Actress Jeanne Samary, although she could not become a stage star (she played mainly maids), was lucky in something else: for some time she lived not far from the studio of Renoir, who painted four portraits of her in 1877-1878, thereby making her famous much more than it could do her actor career. Zhanna played in plays from the age of 18, at 25 she got married and gave birth to three children, then even wrote a children's book. But this charming lady, unfortunately, did not live long: at the age of 33 she fell ill with typhoid fever and died.

Cecilia Gallerani
Leonardo da Vinci, "Lady with an Ermine"
1489-1490

Cecilia Gallerani was a girl from the noble Italian family, who at the age of 10 (!) was already engaged. However, when the girl was 14, the engagement was broken for unknown reasons, and Cecilia was sent to a monastery, where she met (or it was all set up) with the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza. An affair began, Cecilia became pregnant and the Duke settled the girl in his castle, but then the time came to enter into a dynastic marriage with another woman, who, of course, did not like the presence of her mistress in their house. Then, after Gallerani gave birth, the duke took his son and married her to the impoverished count.

In this marriage, Cecilia gave birth to four children, ran almost the very first literary salon in Europe, visited the Duke and enjoyed playing with his child from his new mistress. After a while, Cecilia’s husband died, war came, she lost her well-being and found shelter in the house of the sister of that same Duke’s wife - it was in such wonderful relationships that she managed to be with people. After the war, Gallerani returned her estate, where she lived until her death at the age of 63.

Zinaida Yusupova
V.A. Serov, “Portrait of Princess Zinaida Yusupova”, 1902

The richest Russian heiress, the last of the Yusupov family, Princess Zinaida was incredibly beautiful, and, despite the fact that her favor was sought, among others, by august persons, she wanted to marry for love. She fulfilled her desire: the marriage was happy and brought two sons. Yusupova spent a lot of time and effort on charitable activities, and after the revolution she continued it in exile. Her beloved eldest son died in a duel when the princess was 47 years old, and she could hardly bear this loss. With the outbreak of unrest, the Yusupovs left St. Petersburg and settled in Rome, and after the death of her husband, the princess moved to her son in Paris, where she spent the rest of her days.

Maria Lopukhina
V.L. Borovikovsky, “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina", 1797

Borovikovsky painted many portraits of Russian noblewomen, but this one is the most charming. Maria Lopukhina, a representative of the Tolstoy count family, is depicted here at the tender age of 18 years. The portrait was commissioned by her husband Stepan Avraamovich Lopukhin shortly after the wedding. Ease and a slightly arrogant look seem either normal posture for such a portrait of the era of sentimentalism, or signs of a melancholic and poetic disposition. The fate of this mysterious girl turned out to be sad: just 6 years after painting, Maria died of consumption.

Giovanina and Amacilia Pacini
Karl Bryullov, “Horsewoman”, 1832

Bryullov’s “Horsewoman” is brilliant ceremonial portrait, in which everything is luxurious: the brightness of the colors, the splendor of the draperies, and the beauty of the models. It depicts two girls who bore the surname Pacini: the eldest Giovanina is sitting on a horse, the younger Amatzilia is looking at her from the porch. The painting was ordered to Karl Bryullov, her long-time lover, by their adoptive mother, Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova, one of the most beautiful women in Russia and heiress to a colossal fortune. The Countess guaranteed a large dowry for her grown-up daughters. But it turned out that by old age she was practically bankrupt, and then adopted daughters Giovanina and Amazilia collected the promised money and property from the countess through the court.

Simonetta Vespucci
Sandro Botticelli, "Birth of Venus"
1482–1486

The famous painting by Botticelli depicts Simonetta Vespucci, the first beauty of the Florentine Renaissance. Simonetta was born into a wealthy family, at the age of 16 she married Marco Vespucci (a relative of Amerigo Vespucci, who “discovered” America and gave the continent his name). After the wedding, the newlyweds settled in Florence and were received at the court of Lorenzo de Medici, which in those years was famous for its magnificent feasts and receptions.

Beautiful, at the same time very modest and friendly, Simonetta quickly fell in love with Florentine men. The ruler of Florence, Lorenzo, himself tried to court her, but his brother Giuliano sought her most actively. Simonetta's beauty inspired many artists of the time, among whom was Sandro Botticelli. It is believed that from the moment they met, Simonetta was the model for all Madonnas and Venuses painted by Botticelli. At the age of 23, Simonetta died of consumption, despite the efforts of the best court doctors. After this, the artist depicted his muse only from memory, and in his old age he bequeathed to be buried next to her, which was done.

Vera Mamontova
V.A. Serov, “Girl with Peaches”, 1887

The most famous painting The master portrait of Valentin Serov was painted in the estate of the wealthy industrialist Savva Ivanovich Mamontov. Every day for two months his daughter, 12-year-old Vera, posed for the artist. The girl grew up and turned into a charming girl, married out of mutual love to Alexander Samarin, belonging to the famous noble family. After a honeymoon trip to Italy, the family settled in the city of Bogorodsk, where three children were born one after another. But unexpectedly in December 1907, just 5 years after the wedding, Vera Savvishna died of pneumonia. She was only 32 years old, and her husband never remarried.

Alexandra Petrovna Struyskaya
F.S. Rokotov, “Portrait of Struyskaya”, 1772

This portrait by Rokotov is like an airy half-hint. Alexandra Struyskaya was 18 when she was married to a very rich widower. There is a legend that for her wedding her husband gave her nothing less than a new church. And all my life I wrote poetry to her. It is not known for certain whether this marriage was happy, but everyone who visited their house paid attention to how different the spouses were from each other. Over 24 years of marriage, Alexandra bore her husband 18 children, 10 of whom died in infancy. After her husband's death, she lived for another 40 years, firmly managed the estate and left her children a decent fortune.

Galina Vladimirovna Aderkas
B.M. Kustodiev “Merchant's Wife at Tea”, 1918

Kustodiev’s “Merchant’s Wife at Tea” is a real illustration of that bright and well-fed Russia, where there are fairs, carousels and the “crunch of French bread.” The picture was painted in the post-revolutionary famine year of 1918, when one could only dream of such abundance.

Galina Vladimirovna Aderkas, a natural baroness from a family that traces its history back to one Livonian knight of the 18th century, posed for the merchant’s wife in this portrait-picture. In Astrakhan, Galya Aderkas was the Kustodievs' housemate, from the sixth floor; The artist’s wife brought the girl to the studio after noticing the colorful model. During this period, Aderkas was very young - a first-year medical student - and in the sketches her figure looks much thinner. After graduating from university and working for some time as a surgeon, she left the profession and Soviet years she sang in a Russian choir, took part in dubbing films, got married and began performing in the circus.

Lisa del Giocondo
Leonardo da Vinci, "Mona Lisa", 1503-1519.

Perhaps one of the most famous and mysterious portraits of all times is the famous Mona Lisa by the great Leonardo. Among the many versions of who owns the legendary smile, the following was officially confirmed in 2005: the canvas depicts Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The portrait may have been commissioned from the artist to commemorate the birth of a son and the purchase of a house.

Together with her husband, Lisa raised five children and, most likely, her marriage was based on love. When her husband died of the plague and Lisa was also struck by this serious illness, one of the daughters was not afraid to take her mother to her place and left her. Mona Lisa recovered and lived for some time with her daughters, dying at the age of 63.

ANTIQUITY

Women Egypt were more free and independent than women in other countries - not only Ancient World, but also Europe: from the Middle Ages to late XIX century. However, the so-called "gender equality" in Ancient Egypt was absent - because according to the world order established by Maat, the vital essence of men and women is different. The men of Egypt worshiped women, admired them, and cared for them. At the same time, naturally, demanding from them attention and respect for themselves. In traditional Egyptian art, women were most often represented as a loving wife holding her husband's hand or hugging his shoulder. Since the men worked for fresh air in the fields or by the river, their skin was dark, while the women working in a room protected from the scorching sun were light. According to fine arts, Egyptian women are usually presented as fragile and graceful.

Cretan the women had an unnaturally narrow waist, were short in stature and graceful in build. They hid their faces in the shadows, which made their skin pale, and against its background were black eyes and hair. Women wore curls that framed the neck, curls gathered on the forehead, or braids with woven ribbons. Cretan women wore fluffy hats on their heads (similar to those of the 19th century). Feet were often bare, but upper-class women sometimes wore embroidered leather shoes.

Fragment of the back of Tutankhamun's throne

Painting in the Knossos Palace. Crete

Painting in Pompeii

Fayum portrait.Egypt

MIDDLE AGES

The Middle Ages gave women a very modest, if not insignificant, place in the orderly edifice of the social hierarchy. Patriarchal instinct, traditions preserved since the times of barbarism, and finally, religious orthodoxy - all this prompted medieval man to have a very wary attitude towards women. The use of cosmetics and jewelry was considered an integral attribute of female “sinfulness” - both were severely condemned by the church. There was even a special resolution according to which a marriage concluded with the help of women’s “tricks” - cosmetics, dresses, etc. was considered fraudulent, illegal and could be dissolved.

REVIVAL

Human personality in the Renaissance is mediated not by God, but by beauty and, above all, female beauty. For the first time in human history, a woman occupies an exclusive place, like the Madonna on the throne.
This is where the endless string of Madonnas come from, gradually turning into simply portraits of young women of the era. The Renaissance woman is nobility, beauty and education.

Van Eyck

Botticelli -Madonna Magnificat (Glorification of the Madonna)

Botticelli - Birth of Venus

El Greco

Raffaello

Raffaello

Bronzino

da Vinci - Lady with an ermine

Yes Vinci - Madonna Litta

Yes Vinci-Gioconda

Cristofano Allori

Giorgione - Sleeping Venus

BAROQUE

In the Baroque era (late 16th-17th centuries), naturalness again went out of fashion. It is being replaced by stylization and theatricality. The heyday of the Baroque came during the reign of the French “Sun King” Louis XIV. From then on, the French court began to dictate fashion throughout Europe. Female body in the Baroque period, as before, it should be “rich” with a “swan” neck, wide shoulders thrown back and curvy hips. But the waist should now be as thin as possible, and whalebone corsets are coming into fashion. Lush, frilly clothes have long become one of the main elements of female irresistibility. Parade appearance most clearly manifested in the widespread use of luxurious collars and wigs, which existed among the nobility for almost three centuries.

Rubens

Rubens with his wife

van Meer

Rembrandt

Rembrandt - Saskia

ROCOCO

IN early XVIII V. The Rococo era begins, and the female silhouette changes again. Now the woman should resemble a fragile porcelain figurine. The solemn pomp of Baroque is replaced by grace, lightness and playfulness. At the same time, theatricality and unnaturalness do not go away - on the contrary, they reach their peak. Both men and women take on a doll-like appearance. The Rococo beauty has narrow shoulders and a thin waist, a small bodice contrasting with a huge round skirt. The neckline increases and the skirt shortens somewhat. In this regard, close attention is beginning to be paid to underwear. Stockings are in fashion, and the petticoat is richly decorated. From now on it was considered quite decent to expose a woman's breasts, touch them and kiss them. Modesty only caused ridicule: since a girl is ashamed, it means she has nothing to boast about. The ladies constantly found a reason to show their breasts - either a rose fell and pricked, or a flea bit - “look!” A popular entertainment for the nobility were also unique beauty contests, where ladies shamelessly lifted their hems and opened their bodices. Gallant ladies put so much makeup on their faces that, they say, husbands often did not recognize their wives.

Francois Boucher - Portrait of Louise O'Murphy

Francois Boucher

Fragonard -Swing

ROMANTICISM

Imitation of antique clothing also changed the silhouette of a woman. The dress acquires clear proportions and smooth lines. The main clothing of fashionistas has become the snow-white shmiz - a linen shirt with a large neckline, short sleeves, narrowed in the front and loosely enveloping the figure below. The belt moved right under the chest. Empire style was one of the last clearly defined styles, dictating relatively clear canons of beauty and fashion. With the beginning of the 19th century, fashion begins to change so rapidly that only some of the brightest trends can be caught.

Publications in the Museums section

The fates of beauties from famous portraits

We know them by sight and admire their beauty in the prime of youth. But how did these women live after the painting was completed? Sometimes their fate turns out to be surprising. Remembering with Sofia Bagdasarova.

Sarah Fermor

AND I. Vishnyakov. Portrait of Sarah Eleanor Fermor. Around 1749–1750. Russian Museum

Vishnyakov's painting is one of the most beautiful examples of Russian Rococo and one of the most famous portraits of the era of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Particularly impressive is the contrast between the childish charm of a 10-year-old girl and the fact that she tries to do everything “like an adult”: she accepts correct posture, holds a fan according to etiquette, diligently maintains posture in the corset of a court dress.

Sarah is the daughter of General Willim Fermor, a Russified Scot in Russian service. It was he who took Königsberg and all of East Prussia for us, and in the civil service after the fire he rebuilt classic Tver in the form that delights us now. Sarah's mother was also from a Scottish family - from the Bruces, and was the niece of the famous Jacob Bruce, “the sorcerer from the Sukharev Tower.”

Sarah was married late at that time, at the age of 20, to her peer Jacob Pontus Stenbock, a representative of a Swedish count family (one Swedish queen even came from it). The Stenbocks had by that time moved to Russian Estland. The couple lived, frankly, quite well: suffice it to say that their palace in Tallinn now houses the premises of the Estonian Prime Minister and the government meeting room. Sarah, according to some indications, became the mother of nine children and died under Emperor Alexander I - either in 1805, or even in 1824.

Maria Lopukhina

V.L. Borovikovsky. Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina. 1797. Tretyakov Gallery

Borovikovsky painted many portraits of Russian noblewomen, but this one is the most charming. In it, all the master’s techniques are applied so skillfully that we don’t even notice exactly how we are bewitched, how the charm of this young lady is created, to whom almost a hundred years later Yakov Polonsky dedicated poetry (“... but Borovikovsky saved her beauty”).

Lopukhina is 18 years old in the portrait. Her ease and slightly arrogant look seem either to be a common pose for such a portrait of the era of sentimentalism, or signs of a melancholic and poetic disposition. But we don’t know what her character really was. At the same time, Maria, it turns out, was sister Fyodor Tolstoy (American), famous for his defiant behavior. Surprisingly, if you look at the portrait of her brother in his youth (L.N. Tolstoy State Museum), we will see the same imposing and relaxed manner.

The portrait was commissioned by her husband, Stepan Lopukhin, shortly after the wedding. Lopukhin was older than Maria for 10 years and came from a wealthy and noble family. Six years after painting the picture, the girl died from consumption. Ten years later, her husband also died. Since they were childless, the painting was inherited by the only surviving daughter of Fyodor Tolstoy, from whom Tretyakov bought it in the 1880s.

Giovannina Pacini

K.P. Bryullov. Rider. 1832. Tretyakov Gallery

Bryullov’s “Horsewoman” is a brilliant ceremonial portrait in which everything is luxurious - the brightness of the colors, the splendor of the draperies, and the beauty of the models. Russian academicism has something to be proud of.

On it are written two girls who bore the surname Pacini: the eldest Giovannina is sitting on a horse, the younger Amatzilia is looking at her from the porch. But whether they had the right to this surname is still not clear. The painting was commissioned from Karl Bryullov, her long-time lover, by their adoptive mother, Countess Yulia Samoilova, one of the most beautiful women in Russia and heiress to the colossal fortune of the Skavronskys, Litta and Potemkin. Having left her first husband, Samoilova went to live in Italy, where both Rossini and Bellini visited her salon. The countess did not have her own children, although she married twice more, once to a young and handsome Italian singer Peri.

By official version, Giovannina and Amazilia were sisters - the daughters of the author of the opera “The Last Day of Pompeii”, composer Giovanni Pacini, a friend (and, according to rumors, lover) of the countess. She took them into her home after his death. However, judging by the documents, Pacini had only one daughter, the youngest of the girls. Who was the eldest? There is a version that she was born out of wedlock by the sister of that same tenor Peri, Samoilova’s second husband. Or maybe the countess and the girl had a closer relationship family connection... It is not for nothing that “The Horsewoman” was first considered a portrait of the Countess herself. Having matured, Giovannina married an Austrian officer, captain of the hussar regiment Ludwig Aschbach, and went with him to Prague. Samoilova guaranteed her a large dowry. However, since the countess went bankrupt in her old age (she had to pay huge alimony to her third husband, a French aristocrat), both “daughters” collected the promised money from the old woman “mother” through a lawyer. Samoilova died in poverty in Paris, but the further fate of her students is unknown.

Elizaveta Martynova

K.A. Somov. Lady in blue. 1897–1900. Tretyakov Gallery

“Lady in Blue” by Somov - one of the symbols of painting Silver Age, in the words of art critic Igor Grabar - “La Gioconda of our time”. As in the paintings of Borisov-Musatov, there is not only the enjoyment of beauty, but also admiration of the fading charm of landowner Russia.

Elizaveta Martynova, who posed for Somov in the portrait, was apparently one of the artist’s few female crushes. The artist met her, the daughter of a doctor, while studying at the Imperial Academy of Arts - she was among the students enrolled in 1890, when women were first allowed to enter this educational institution. Surprisingly, it seems that Martynova’s own works have not survived. However, her portraits were painted not only by Somov, but also by Philip Malyavin and Osip Braz. Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva studied with her, who in her memoirs casually noted that, although Martynova was always described as a tall, stately beauty, in reality she was vertically challenged. The artist’s character was emotional, proud and easily vulnerable.

Somov painted her several times: in 1893 in watercolor in profile, two years later in pencil, and in 1897 he created a small portrait of her in oil against a background spring landscape(Astrakhan Art Gallery). He created the same picture intermittently for three years: the artist spent two of them in Paris, and Martynov was on for a long time settled in Tyrol. The treatment did not help: about four years after finishing the painting, she died of consumption at the age of about 36. She apparently had no family

Galina Aderkas

B.M. Kustodiev. Merchant's wife having tea. 1918. Russian Museum

Although Kustodiev’s “Merchant’s Wife at Tea” was written in the post-revolutionary year of 1918, for us it is a real illustration of that bright and well-fed Russia, where there are fairs, carousels and the “crunch of French bread.” However, after the revolution, Kustodiev did not change his favorite subjects: for a person chained to the end of his life wheelchair, it became a form of escapism.

Galina Aderkas, a natural baroness from a family that traces its history back to a Livonian knight of the 13th century, posed for the merchant's wife in this portrait-picture. One of the baronesses von Aderkas was even Anna Leopoldovna’s teacher.

In Astrakhan, Galya Aderkas was the Kustodievs' housemate, from the sixth floor; The artist’s wife brought the girl to the studio after noticing the colorful model. During this period, Aderkas was very young, a first-year medical student. And to be honest, in the sketches her figure looks much thinner and not so impressive. She studied, as they say, surgery, but her passion for music took her into another field. The owner of an interesting mezzo-soprano, in the Soviet years Aderkas sang as part of the Russian choir at the Music Broadcasting Directorate of the All-Union Radio Committee, participated in dubbing films, but did not achieve much success. She married, apparently, a certain Boguslavsky and, possibly, began performing in the circus. The Manuscript Department of the Pushkin House even contains handwritten memoirs authored by G.V. Aderkas, entitled “Circus is my world...”. What her fate was like in the 30s and 40s is unknown.