BEAUTY OF THE FACE IN PARTICULAR.
"It is probable," says Dr. Prichard, "that the natural idea of the
beautiful in the human person has been more or less distorted in almost
every nation. Peculiar characters of countenance, in many countries,
accidentally enter into the ideal standard. This observation has been made
particularly of the negroes of Africa, who are said to consider a flat
nose and thick lips as principal ingredients of beauty; and we are
informed by Pallas that the Kalmucs[40] esteem no face as handsome, which
has not the eyes in angular position, and the other characteristics of
their race. The Aztecs of Mexico have ever preferred a depressed
forehead,[41] which forms the strongest contrast to the majestic contour
of the Grecian busts: the former represented their divinities with a head
more flattened than it is ever seen among the Caribs, and the Greeks, on
the contrary, gave to their gods and heroes a still more unnatural
elevation."
Knowing, as the reader now does, what constitutes the worth, the dignity,
and the beauty, of the various organs, this statement tends to show the
value of that standard of beauty which we owe to the Greeks. I proceed to
illustrate it in regard to the FACE.
The beauty of the human countenance is described by various writers, as
including the beauty of form, in the various features of the face; the
beauty of color, in the shades of the complexion; the beauty of character,
in some distinctive and permanent relations; and the beauty of expression,
in some immediate and temporary feeling.
In regard to the form of the face, considered as a whole, the opening of
the facial angle of Camper, in measuring geometrically the extent of the
upper part of the head, marks the development of the brain or organ of
thought, and shows the proportion which it bears to the middle and lower
part of the face, or to the organs of sense and expression.
This development of the upper part of the head contributes essentially to
beauty, by giving to the whole head that pyriform appearance already
described, by which in every view it is larger at the superior part,
diminishes gradually as it descends, and terminates by the agreeable
outline of the chin.
In the most beautiful race of men, the facial angle extends to eighty-five
degrees, acquiring an increase of ten degrees above the inferior
varieties; the face is diminished; the eyes are better placed; the nose
assumes a more elegant form; and all appearance of muzzle vanishes.
In the Greek ideal head, the development presenting a facial angle of
ninety degrees, confers the highest beauty of the form of the head, the
majesty of the forehead, the position of the eyes upon a line which
divides the face into two equal parts, the elegant projection of the nose,
the absence of all tumidity of the lips.--But of that, in the sequel.
In the face, generally, as observed by Winckelmann, beauty of form depends
greatly upon the profile, and particularly on the line described by the
forehead and nose, by the greater or less degree of the concavity or
declivity of which, beauty is increased or diminished. The nearer the
profile approaches to a straight line, the more majestic, and at the same
time softer, does the countenance appear, the unity and simplicity of this
line being, as in everything else, the cause of this grand, yet soft
harmony.
The face being the seat of several organs, each must be examined in its
turn.
Winckelmann observes, that "a large high FOREHEAD [an excess, in this
respect] was regarded by the ancients as a deformity."--And "Arnobius
says, that those women who had a high forehead, covered a part of it with
a fillet." The reason of this will afterward be pointed out.
The sense of TOUCH resides in all parts of the face, but especially in
the lips. It is most perfect, however, at the tips of the fingers.
A thinner skin permits to the touch of woman, more vivacity, delicacy, and
profoundness. It seizes the details which generally escape the touch of
man. It is more easily hurt by hard, rough and angular, cold or hot
bodies.
Hence, woman requires vestments which are light and smooth; and she enjoys
more than man the pleasure of reposing on flocculent substances which
softly resist her pressure.
In the face, the lips are peculiarly the organ of touch.
Of all the organs of sense, the mouth admits, I believe, of the greatest
beauty and the greatest deformity. Considered in repose, nothing certainly
is more lovely than this organ when beautifully formed in a beautiful
woman. And in action, during speech, the simplest words passing through it
receive a charm altogether peculiar.
The mouth ought to be small, and not to extend much beyond the nostrils: a
large mouth and thick lips are contrary to beauty. The curve of the upper
lip is said to have served as a model to the ancient artists for the bow
of Love. The lower lip should be most developed, rounded and turned
outward; so as to produce, between it and the chin, that beautiful hollow
which assists so much in giving the latter a more perfect rotundity. Both,
but especially the upper, should become thin toward the angle of the
mouth.
Although we see many lips without evident and offensive defects, there
are very few of them really beautiful; and indeed it is only persons of
great delicacy and of refined taste who attach the highest value to
perfect beauty of the lips.
Lips of beautiful form and of vermillion hue, teeth which are small,
equal, slightly rounded, white, clean, and well arranged, and a pure
breath, are the circumstances which constitute a beautiful mouth.
The sense of TASTE is more delicate and more exquisite in woman than in
man. She accordingly seeks for savors which are less rough and irritating
than those which are agreeable to him.
The NOSE is the most prominent and conspicuous feature of the face; it is
the central fixed point around which are arranged all its other parts; and
it is thus essential to the regularity of the features. When these,
moreover, are in action, the nose, by its immobility, marks the degree of
change which they undergo, and renders intelligible all the movements
produced by admiration, joy, sadness, fear, &c.
To perfect beauty of the nose, it is necessary that it should be nearly in
the same direction with the forehead, and should unite with that part,
without leaving more than a slight inflexion to be seen. This constitutes
the Greek profile; and the various degrees of deviation from it
constitute, as to this organ, the various degenerations from beauty the
most consummate to ugliness the most disgusting.
Nature says Winckelmann, is sparing of this beauty both in burning
climates and in frozen regions.[42]
The same writer says: "The flat compressed nose of the Kalmucs, Chinese,
and other distant nations, is also a defect, because it destroys the
harmony of forms, according to which all the other parts are constructed:
nor is there any reason why nature should compress and hollow it, instead
of continuing the straight line begun in the forehead." The fact is true;
the reasoning false, as will be seen in a subsequent chapter, to which
this point properly belongs.
Under the influence of passion, the nostrils expand and are drawn upward;
and these two motions are the only ones of which the lower and moveable
part of the nose is capable.
The sense of smell, like that of taste, is more delicate and more
exquisite in woman than in man. Woman accordingly enjoys more, and suffers
more, by that sense than man does; and its influence is said to dispose
her more than man to those pleasures which have remarkable relations to
that sense.
To beauty of the EYE, magnitude and elongated form contribute more perhaps
than color: if its form be bad, no color will render it beautiful. In
woman, however, the most beautiful eyes, in relation to color, are those
which appear to be blue, hazel, or black. But no color of the eye is
beautiful without clearness in every part.
"The more obliquely, and at an angle to each other," says Winckelmann,
"that the eyes are placed, as in cats, the more their position is removed
from the base, or from the fundamental lines of the human face, which form
a cross that divides it into four parts, the nose dividing it
perpendicularly into two equal parts, and the eyes dividing it
horizontally. When the eyes are placed obliquely, they form an angle with
a line parallel to that which we suppose to pass through their centre. And
this indeed is doubtless the reason why it displeases us to see a mouth
which goes awry, because it generally offends the eye to see two lines
diverging from each other without any reason. Thus eyes placed obliquely,
as may be seen sometimes among ourselves, and commonly among the Chinese,
Japanese, and in Egyptian heads, are an irregularity and a deformity."
Here, again, Winckelmann's fact is true, and his reasoning false, or
rather, perhaps, superficial. The real cause of the deformity of
obliquely-placed eyes is, that the vital parts of the head preponderate.
The cavities of the upper jaw, which open into the internal nose, are, in
the Mongelic races, so large, that they raise the cheek-bones, throw the
orbit upward at its lateral part, and encroach apparently upon the space
which should contain a nobler organ, the brain. The causes assigned by
Winckelmann are but consequences of this.
The eyelids in woman, when well formed, present the gentlest inflexions.
The eyelashes, when long and silky, form a sign of gentleness, and
sometimes of softness. The eyebrows ought to be furnished with fine hairs,
arched, and separated: if they are too thin, they do not sufficiently
protect the organ of sight: if they unite, they render the physiognomy
sombre; their too-marked approximation, and their extreme separation, are
real deformities.
The sense of sight in woman is rapid and active; yet, in her, the slow and
languid motion of the eye is generally employed, and is more beautiful
than a brisk one. Woman requires a mild light, and colors of moderate
vividness, rather than otherwise.
The beauty of the EAR is too little regarded. To an experienced eye it
presents great beauties, and great deformities, in form, magnitude, and
projection.
The size and prominence of the ear, which characterize several nomadic
tribes, are contrary to beauty, not merely because they alter the
regularity of the oval of the head, and surcharge its outline with
prominences, but because they are in themselves ugly, indicating rather
the coarse strength common to inferior animals than the delicacy to be
found in man.
In woman, the ear is also more delicate, more sensible, but more feeble,
than in man. Strong sounds, loud noises, which may be agreeable to the ear
of man, are offensive to her. She prefers soft and tender, gay, or
pathetic music, to every other; and whatever may be the perfection of her
musical education, she also prefers sweet and tender melody to the most
complicated Sclavonic harmony.
Such are the organs of sense or those of impression, which form the first
and most important portion of the face of woman.--The organs of
expression, the MUSCLES of the face, on the contrary, are feeble in her;
and correspondingly feeble and rounded are the bony points to which they
are attached.
Woman presents very little prominence of the frontal sinuses; the
cheek-bones display beautiful curves; the edges of the alveoli containing
the teeth are much more elliptical than in man; and the chin is softly
rounded. Of the chin, it should be observed that it is a distinctive
character of the human species, and is not found in any other animal. When
well formed, it is full, united, and generally without a dimple; and it
passes gently and almost insensibly into the neighboring parts. In woman
especially, the chin ought to be finely rounded; for when projecting, it
expresses, owing to its connexion with muscular action and power, a
firmness and a determination which we do not wish to discover in her
character. "The apparent convexity of the cheeks," says Winckelmann,
"which in many heads appears greater than natural, contributes to this
rotundity: it is not, however, ideal, but taken from natural beauty."
The muscles of the face express all the shades of emotion and passion, not
because such expression is the primary, or the proper object of their
motion, but because their various motions adapt the organs to the farther
purposes required of them in consequence of preceding impressions; and
these motions become expressive to us only because we are thus enabled to
infer the feeling and purpose of the person in whom they occur. This is a
fundamental principle of physiognomy; and its not being understood has led
to many of our errors in that science.
In woman, the countenance is more rounded, as well as more abundantly
furnished with that cellular and, fatty tissue which fills all the chasms,
effaces, all the angles, and unites all the parts by the gentlest
transitions. At the same time, the muscles are feebler, more mobile,
resigned for a shorter time to the same contraction, and as inconstant as
the emotions and passions which their rapid play expresses.
The result of all this is, that the muscles do not profoundly modify the
face, which consequently has not so much of permanent character as that of
a man, and which permits us more difficultly to discover, through the
rounded, short, and shifting parts, the nature of her various feelings.
As, however, the abundance of the cellular tissue diminishes with age, and
as the sentiments become at the same time less ephemeral, the
physiognomical character and expression of woman become more decided.
As to COLOR of the face, it may be observed that the forehead, the
temples, the eyelids, the nose, the upper part of the superior lip, and
the lower part of the inferior lip, ought in woman to be of a beautiful
and rather opaque white. The approach to the cheeks and the middle of the
chin ought to have a slight teint of rose-color, and the middle of the
cheeks ought to be altogether rosy, but of a delicate hue.--Cheeks of an
animated white are preferable to those of a red color, although less
beautiful than those of rosy hue.
With regard to the HAIR, it may be observed, that sometimes, rising from
its bulbs, it turns in irregular rings, and, by displaying a forehead
rather large, confers a certain sanguine, as well as open air upon the
physiognomy. This, however, is most frequently seen in men, and chiefly in
men of exuberant vitality, rather than intellectuality: it indeed depends
entirely on the former.
In other men, and almost always in women, the hair generally divides in a
line extending from the crown to the forehead, and falls over the temples.
The line thus formed, uniting with the median line, of the face in
general, and that of the nose in particular, gives to the whole of the
features a peculiar symmetry and beauty.
I have said, already, that symmetry is a characteristic of thinking
beings, and I have explained the reason of this. The present case
admirably illustrates it. This symmetrical arrangement of the hair bestows
an intellectual air; and it well may, for, when natural, it derives its
tendency to fall on each side, from the top of the head, either from the
general elevation of the calvarium, or from the particular elevation of
the forehead, which is characteristic of beauty in woman.
It accordingly announces in the individual higher observing faculties:
hence, the ancient sculptors never omitted this in their highest
personages: hence, we find it in the heads of Raffaelle and Guido.
"A fair hue, [Greek: xanthos]," says Winckelmann, "has ever been regarded
as the most beautiful; and flaxen-colored hair was assigned to the most
beautiful, not only among the gods, as Apollo [[Greek: chrysokoman
Apollôna], golden-haired Apollo] and Bacchus, but also among the heroes:
Alexander the Great had flaxen hair." The modern Italians call Cupid "Il
biondo Dio."
Having concluded what I have here to say of the parts of the face, I may
observe, that the _different effects of the same face_, even in a state of
repose, have often been observed, never explained. I have, however, in
another work, shown that the face is composed of motive, nutritive, and
thinking parts or organs. Now, circumstances bring these variously into
action; and the different effects alluded to, in reality depend on the
motive, or the nutritive, or the intellectual expression being at the
time, respectively, most apparent, or most attended to by us. The study of
this subject, which I have not space here to develop, is of infinite
importance to the man of taste, the physiognomist, and the artist. The
latter cannot easily excel without understanding it.
Another curious fact, not hitherto observed, is, that though beauty of
face is, owing to the power of the vital system, almost universal at a
certain age, there is always a _faulty feature_, which the physiognomist
may observe, and which ever continues to exaggerate, until it terminate in
relative ugliness. Thus we scarcely observe the long upper lip during
youth, in some women; and yet it afterward gives to them the sober grimace
of baboons. We admire in youth the spirit of the piercing eye, and
aquiline nose in others, to whom these afterward give the look of so many
old hawks. In others, still, we are charmed with the round, rosy, and
innocent cheeks, which, when they become paler and more pendent, confer on
them the aspect either of seals or of mastiffs, according to other
circumstances of temper and disposition. I could easily trace these, and
many more, from youth to middle age, and illustrate them convincingly, by
drawings: but I have no room for it here.
Each, indeed, of the subjects of the two immediately preceding paragraphs,
is worthy of a volume; for the first is as essential to all judgment of
existing beauty at the instant of its being before us, as the second is to
all prescience of what beauty will very soon be--to all who have no love
for a leap in the dark.
I add to this chapter but a few words on the very _different organization
of the head and face_, and the very different mind, of the Greeks and
Romans.
Whoever, for the purpose of comparing the heads of these two nations, may
walk into the British Museum, will be struck with the difference between
them.
The forehead is almost always rather narrow, and rather high, in the most
illustrious Greeks; and this could not so uniformly have been so
represented, in sculpture, unless it had been so also in fact. This is
verified, in the third room of the Townley collection, by the heads of
Homer, Hippocrates, Epicurus, Pericles, &c.--by the almost universal
conformation of Greek heads, to which there are but few exceptions:
Sophocles, in this room, and Demosthenes, in the eleventh, are rather
broader.
On the contrary, the forehead, the face, the jaws, are excessively broad,
and the cranium is depressed and low, in the Romans--in Severus, Nero,
Caracalla, &c., in the sixth room, and in Tiberius and Augustus, in the
eleventh; nor is this owing to the circumstance that these generally were
men degraded in feeling or intellect, for nearly the same configuration is
found in Trajan, Hadrian, &c., in the fourth, sixth, and other rooms. The
faces of the Romans are not less ugly than their heads; and those of their
women are absolutely detestable, as may be seen in Faustina, Plautilla,
Sabina, Domitia, &c., in the sixth of these rooms.
If farther illustration of this be wanting, it may be found in the
circumstance that, while the Greeks preferred the rather high forehead,
and invented the ideal one, the Romans, on the contrary, preferred a
little forehead and united eyebrows. Ovid assures us that the women of his
time painted their eyebrows in such a manner, that they might appear to
form only one.
In the work so often referred to, I have shown that the intensity of
functions is as the length of their organs, and the permanence of
functions as the breadth of their organs. No truth can be better
illustrated than this is, in the organization and the faculties of the
Greeks and Romans. With the higher and larger head of the Greeks was
united an intensity of genius, which no other people has yet rivalled; and
with the broader head of the Romans, a perseverance, equally obstinate and
unfeeling, which has been similarly unrivalled.
A good illustration of the vaunted Roman virtue is recorded in Porcia, the
daughter of Cato, the wife of Brutus, who plunged a toilet-knife into her
thigh, and kept it eight days in the wound, without complaining, to prove
to her husband that her courage and her discretion rendered her worthy of
entering into the conspiracy, which he meditated; and who also destroyed
herself by swallowing burning coals, when she heard of his defeat.
Obstinacy and insensibility were great sources of the crimes either
perpetrated, or, by their lying historians, pretended to be perpetrated,
under the name of Roman virtue.
* * * * *
It would be out of place, here, to enter farther into the character and
expression of the face. Those whom these remarks dispose to do so, may
refer to the physiognomical work, which I have been so often compelled to
allude to.[43] To those who are satisfied, neither with the vague, though
tasteful inspirations of Lavater, nor with the empyrical or unreasoned
manifestations of Gall and Spurzheim, but who desire _the assignment of a
reason for every description of physiognomical character or expression_,
that work may afford some satisfaction.
That the Greeks, either intuitively or reasonedly, distinguished the three
species of beauty as to the figure, has been already seen. The heads of
Diana, Venus, and Minerva, respectively present beauty of the locomotive,
vital, and mental systems.