The Greeks believe that all beauty boils down to maths
A classic, red-coloured dress from Valentino of the luxurious kind. Draped long, form-fitting and often with a deep bare back, designed as if it were based on an algebraic formula. Floral and traditional porcelain plates from Italian Richard Ginori, who has been at it since 1735, where the details are precisely placed. The sound of sophisticated jazz on a fine afternon, a la Blue Note Records. A language-rich novel by the late author Joan Didion with a sensitive and analytical pen. It doesn't necessarily have to be something expensive for me to interpret it as beauty, but it has to be something distinctive, sensory, aesthetic or sublime. The beautiful picturesque landscape in Tuscany. The lovely elderly man who holds the door for you in the neighbourhood. Who says "after you, ma'am" and has retained something of the old-fashioned in him. Or of the opposite sex. As an aesthete, I admire the beautiful and the beautiful. Not only because they give me sensory pleasure straight to my brain, but also when they carry a story and a narrative. Something characteristic.
In a society characterised by the tyranny of similarity, which is also rooted in the third wave of feminism and the ideals of similarity, it is all the more important to capture the characteristic beautiful. As mentioned, the uniqueness of beauty is what often catches my eye. However, I worry that the aesthetic is disappearing in today's view of art, fashion, films, music and human personalities where retouched influencers and celebrities take up too much space. I sometimes prefer to rewind a little rather than be exposed to the ideals of our time or browse through the bookshelf.
Vogue Italia and France magazines still have a lot of "female" content, but looking at more recent magazines, we find a trend that wants to retouch the excesses of femininity rather than drawing from an already existing, indisputable beauty in women. We don't see much of the characteristic style that women used to wear when Jeanne Moreau, Anna Magnani and Liv Ullmann were stars. Today, clothes, products and covers are sold based on influencers who are all on Instagram, who are happy to sell something, and who take selfies with sponsored products. There's something about the potential art form of beauty that today seems tame and half-hearted in its expression. An internal social club for sales.
It seems that most fashionable personalities today are clones of each other. The beauties of our time are those who pose for the fashion industry and have thousands of followers on social media. They are referred to as "influencers" on magazine covers and TV programmes, and you are left with the impression that they form a group of friends, a group that promotes and supports each other. There is not a shred of intellect portrayed through their presence on social media. Just make-up, selfies and outfits. Is the goal just to be a travelling photogenic product, a "public figure" on Instagram? Why has beauty become a commodity?
In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is portrayed as the goddess of beauty and love, notorious for having a beautiful and graceful body. Jean Bolen, author of the book Goddesses in every woman, looks at the positive aspects of Aphrodite's archetype; the sensuality, passion and magnetic radiance whose modern term is often "sex appeal". Another ancient figure, the beautiful Hypatia, was a philosopher and mathematician, not to mention a highly intelligent and respected academic. But with a sad fate: she was sentenced to death. The Greeks believed that all beauty boils down to maths, and for years scientists have been searching for a common quality in all attractive things that can explain our perception of beauty. The aesthete in me believes that today's "influencers" lack a rich personality, as exemplified by the beautiful figures of Greek mythology and antiquity.
To quote the American feminist Camille Paglia: "Without difference there is no beauty". She celebrates the mystery and beauty of women. According to her, beauty is undervalued in our Western tradition. Some feminists dismiss it. I also find beauty in the differences between women and men, androgynous, masculine and feminine. Or my fascination with men and women who become more beautiful with age. For example, Marcello Mastroianni was a beautiful man, with distinctive features. The same can be said of architect Anabelle Selldor, who have graced the pages of The Gentlewoman magazine with the title An architect of precision and poise.
The sensory pleasure that we see in Picasso, Fellini and the American photographic artist Sally Mann, who is known for her nude portraits of children. They are so aesthetic and beautiful that you don't think of the photographs as violent and pornographic. She doesn't portray the children as wretch and has an eye for them.
It is often in the maternal and feminine that we find mystery, eroticism and beauty. Not in plastic surgery, although that is sometimes justifiable, but in what nature has given the woman in terms of proportions, movements, face and character. To quote Paglia again: "Beauty is our weapon against nature; by it we make objects, giving them limit, symmetry, proportion. Beauty halts and freezes the melting flux of nature."
Beauty in humans can be so many, hands, a nose, freckles or of a dignified personality that shines through. But regardless of how you look, intellect, adventurousness, character and independence are what should be the focus of the ideal framework. Not the exaggerated mentalisation of make-up perfection as a commodity for sale. Intellectualising the concept can help build others up so that they come to terms with beauty in its inner and outer right sense. The formula in beauty is distinctive.