Measures of beauty

I have been trying to understand human body form in art. It’s amazing how we enhance a few body parts and neglect a few.

British academic Nigel Spivey explains- why is our modern world dominated by images of the body that are unrealistic?  In his T.V. series ‘How Art Made the World’

Neuroscientists theorize this has something to do with the workings of the human brain, and point to a neurological principle known as the peak shift. In essence our brain is hard-wired to focus upon parts of objects with pleasing associations. So if you were an artist, the tendency would be to reproduce human figures with parts that mattered the most to you.

While learning Indian art history I have been going through a lot of such images where certain body parts are measures of a female body.

In India mature women were considered beautiful. Fully grown ladies who are in their 30s, but why? To gain an answer I must learn the living conditions, environment, their beliefs, and their culture.

The Venus of Willendorf is one of the earliest images of the body made by humankind

The people who made this statue lived in a harsh ice-age environment where features of fatness and fertility would have been highly desirable.

Incase of our ’fly whisks bearer‘ (Late Mayuryan, c.200BC.,Chunar sand stone, H. 5 ft4 inches,Patna Museum) same logic can be applied in terms of fertility.

Why then now we have discarded this image’ of a woman?

Every culture develops some kind of art. It has to do with the introduction of various cultures. Imagine a family with 8 children in today’s times.

Today’s Indian culture is – hum do hamre do

In most cases its just one child, for several different reasons. This makes me wonder is may be the woman is not just a child bearer any more thus she may not have to look like one even in artistic images. And very rapidly we have dropped the fact of her looking like one. (Hips the breast being grotesquely big)

Unfortunately we are being faced with the extreme side of her which is – size zero

This is nothing but corruption of feelings, and that reflects in every form of art.

As I say if you are looking at a painting look beyond the paint..

If you are appreciating a woman, look beyond the mere symbols of fertility or size zero.