MET: Renaissance

Works of art such as this one by Giulio Romano, don’t make me think of that time after the dark ages, don’t make me think of knights or blossoming science.  It makes me think about beauty.  It makes me think about how beauty has changed with the passing years, how it’s different for each person, each continent each era. Especially with the female image.

Back when this guy was big plump and pasty was the thing.  If you were stick skinny you didn’t get the prince or the pretty dresses.  If you were skinny it meant you were some poor working slob because you couldn’t afford enough to eat to put some meat on your bones.  Now we love the skinny and the tan.  Current western society loves defined curves and hints of muscle.  Because if you’re tan it means you have the cash to hop on a plane and fly to Aruba.  But not everyone thinks that’s beautiful.  Which means not everyone thought the lady above was beautiful in her heyday.

Looking at those giant beautiful oil paintings is like being stuck between this time and that one, knowing what it really was like to be on this world then, yet still having your feet planted firmly in the 21st century.  Realizing that beauty then was just as important and glorified as it is now made me stand stick still and just think of all the words and hours behind those paintings.  The women behind that beauty.