Facing beauty : painted women & cosmetic art /

Ribeiro (emer., Courtauld Institute of Art, Univ. of London) writes about changing concepts of beauty from the Renaissance and the Enlightenment to the start of WW II, focusing on portraits and other depictions of women whose appearance has been enhanced by cosmetics. Many of the social practices for attaining beauty that she discusses are illustrated by the artwork in this book. By emphasizing beauty, this volume is highly selective in its treatment of the wealthy and privileged until beauty products became part of 20th-century consumer culture. Ribeiro captures the allure of women as objects of the male gaze for each epoch, but she also regards, as equally significant, the ways in which women participated in and adhered to the prevailing standards of beauty. To that end, she provides a wealth of information on the history of cosmetics and develops a discourse on beauty with selections from beauty manuals as well as philosophical texts and treatises on art. Her analysis of the images not only provides an engaging commentary on the ideals and social customs illustrated by the artwork, but also makes accessible to a general audience the philosophical concepts informing the diverse notions of beauty that developed. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers. D. H. Cibelli Nicholls State University