Beauty of Human Figures

...Klemens of Alexandria recounted that when Apelles had one of his students work on the painting of Helena with gold and jewels, he reproached him, saying: Son, you desired to embellish your work richly, but you did not understand how to achieve true beauty: thus emphasizing the distinction between superficial ornamentation and genuine beauty. Some arbiters of taste consider the beauty of women and maidens in the fairness or whiteness of flesh, others in the slenderness and delicacy of well-formed limbs, praising those above average proportion of a good figure. However, he who would be so childlike in judgment to amuse himself with a doll rather than a human is mistaken. According to our understanding, another connoisseur of human studies better captured it when describing the beauty of a woman as follows: A woman, he says, will be beautiful if she is noble in stature, with brown eyes, blonde-grey or dark hair, a high forehead, broad face, well-proportioned, clear and transparent complexion, small mouth, white teeth, short chin, slightly cleft; small breast, well-placed bosom; and the rest of the body should be in such harmonious assemblage, such that nothing is better or worse, nor anything obstructs another, or is deemed as deformity. Accompanied by health and a noble spirit which rightly governs, the ultimate refinement will adorn this beauty.

There is also an imagined or false beauty.

Translation Notes

- "Verwe" likely refers to "complexion".
- "Menschkundige" is translated as "connoisseur of human studies" instead of "anthropologist".