Wednesday, June 01, 2016

The Most Alluring Women of 17th Century England

What the Most Alluring Women of 17th Century England Looked Like

7 comments:

Deb said...

Not visible but most definitely present: lice and syphillis.

Jeff Meyerson said...

It's hard to get past the "alluring" hairdos.

Don Coffin said...

Maybe it's just my vision, but those "beauties" all seem to have the same face and head...or maybe they were all painted by painters who had studied at the same school...

Jerry House said...

Deb, I believe Jeff saw Lice and Syphillis open for the Sex Pistols.

Jeff Meyerson said...

And it was a helluva show too.

Rick Robinson said...

The first three are the same model, or sisters, or related, certainly.

Deb said...

The portrait artists of the day painted to an ideal--sort of an early version of airbrushing/ photoshopping. So whatever the prevailing standards of beauty were, a noble woman's portrait would reflect that. Probably none of those women looked remotely like their portraits. When Oliver Cromwell portrait was being painted, the artist deliberately omitted some rather large facial warts Cromwell had. Cromwell was incensed and told the artist to repaint the portrait "warts and all." Thus the saying.