User:Adnsz/Hairstyles in Renaissance Art

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The Renaissance in Europe (14th to 16th century)^[1]featured representations of women with varied hairstyles, costumes, and other things like cosmetics associated with feminine beauty. These qualities displaying status and beauty were regarded as excessive in the Middle Ages, but were the norm in Renaissance representations of women.^[2]. In works of art, hair can indicate a subject's position, identity, and background, as well as allude to qualities of beauty.^[3]. The display of hair was regarded as a private act, but in art it became an indicator of what a patron or individual wanted the world to see about the sitter, thus a more public expression.^[4] Artists' depiction of hair thus provides insight into the subject, the subject's identity, and her culture. Artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli wrote of the importance of mastering the depiction of hair.^[5]

In Renaissance society of Italy, married women ordinarily wore their hair covered.^[6] Uncovered hair either meant a woman was unmarried and a virgin or a sex worker.^[7] Married women would wear a veil, hat, headdress, and these head coverings are often depicted in art.^[4] Hair falling on the shoulders was even claimed to be ‘unlawful’^[6]. The reason for this opinion was religious as well as cultural. The Church would exclude and shun women if they did not cover their heads. This was because head coverings indicated both one's respect for God as well as a woman's place under her husband and her devotion to him^[4]. Loose hair was also improper because it was supposed to be too sexually arousing.^[8] The exception to these rules can be seen in images of very wealthy women. There were a few upper class women who believed that they were above the customs laid out to them by middle class priests^[7]. Isabella d'Este was one woman who was sometimes seen in danger of violating these rules. In paintings such as Leonardo da Vinci's Portrait of Isabella d'Este 1534 Isabella, a married woman, is seen without a head cover and with loose, open hair^[4].

Hair could indicate a woman's relationship to sex. Hair was often seen as extremely erotic and different ways of portraying it hinted at how erotic a subject was meant to look. For example women whose hair was tied into knots so that the neck was visible were thought of as very sexual. When women had gold jewels around their necks it was seen as even more scandalous^[9]. There is an accessory seen in a number of Botticelli images such as Venus and Mars and Primavera which looks like two braids wrapping around the neck and meeting in the middle of the chest. This was thought of as so arousing that seeing it on an image signaleld that the subject was not real but from an imagined realm.^[8] Partially cover hair was also seen to be modest but very erotic^[10] as seen in obviously erotic images like Laura, Portrait of a Young Bride by Giorgione.

Paintings in the Renaissance sometimes depicted real women with true likeness to what they looked like but often showed subjects as idealised versions of themselves or simply as the ideal of the time. There was a very specific type of hair that was seen in an ideal image; long and blond hair^[11]. The hair had to be fair and this fair hair was supposed to indicate fertility^[10]. It was also supposed to show virtue and innocence.^[12] Women would sometimes use a substance called bionda which would help them dye their hair blond to fit into this ideal^[13]. Examples of this idea of beauty can be seen in most images of Venus such as The Birth of Venus, Venus with a Mirror and Venus, Adonis and Cupid.

In a painting a subject's wealth could also be seen through their hairstyle. Hair jewels were given their own name, gioelli da testa^[13].Ribbons, pearls, broaches were often expensive ways to adorn hair^[6]. Since it was thought that Venus was born from a pearl, pearls were given greater importance than other jewels ^[14]. Additionally wearing pearls out in public was banned in Florence so being able to wear pearls in a painting meant a woman was important enough to be labeled as an exception to the pearl ban.^[15] More extravagant hairstyles with more jewels in the hair symbolized greater wealth^[16]. Titian's portrait of Isabella d'Este shows this through her headdress which, among other things, has a headpiece adorned with huge pearls. In the painting of Ambrogio de' Prédis, Blanca Maria Sforza-Visconti, the gem encrusted netting in the hair and the pearls wrapped around the braid are obvious indicators of her wealth^[6]. In marriage portraits a woman may be decorated in jewels from her dowery signaling the wealth of both families involved in the marriage. An example of this can be seen in Woman with a Man at a Window by Fra Filippo Lippi, the young bride wears an extravagant head dress with jewels on it. ^[17]

Leonardo Da Vinci created hair that expressed weight and created a heavy mass that was strong and beyond the penetration of objects or gravity^[14]. He compared hair to water and emphasized that artists should pay attention to every stand they paint. ^[5]Some of his most interesting hair work is in the portrait of Generva Benci. The tight golden ringlets have an appealing shine to them. ^[18]

Da Vinici was said to be influenced by Leon Battista Alberti's ideas about hair. Alberti thought of hair as something that was alive but in the form of an inanimate object. He got his inspiration from horses mains, leaves, cloth. This is a quote of his, ‘Let [the hair], in fact, swirl attempting to make a knot; or better still, let it wave in the air while it imitates flames, and let it coil on some heads; let it rise sometimes in this or that direction.’^[5] Alberti created his understanding about hair while contemplating the difference and similarities between living things and inanimate objects and by placing hair somewhere in the middle. Through his philosophy and his art Alberti influenced a lot of ideas and representations in the creation of hair.^[5]

Titian had his own way of using hair to enhance images. He made hair gently brush the neck indicating desire^[19]. He also used it to frame his faces, using colour to form contrast and bring interest to what could initially seen as a dull face. This technique can be seen in Portrait of the Empress Isabella^[20]One of his paintings where hair is a major subject is Woman at Her Toilet. Here he creates the perfect blondness that was so admired in Italy and manages to create a realistic depiction of volume. He shows the importance of the hair both through the way the subject holds her hair and also through the way the suitor is more interested in the hair than the face of the woman. Titian used hair to conjure classical art and poetry.^[21]

Boteccili has been claimed to have gone the furthest to understand the complexity and intricacy of hair.^[15] He had different ways to create beauty through hair whether it was in 5 Workshop of Sandro Botticelli, Venus where he has very specific deliberate controlled beauty in the ponytails or in 6 Workshop of Sandro Botticelli, Venus where hair was a way to frame the face and body.^[15] This style of using hair as a way to enhance other features can be seen in his famous The Birth of Venus. Venus's hair moves the eye down her body highlighting different elements from the neck to the groin. The hair is used to hide certain erotic parts of the body but this modesty makes Venus seem even more desirable.^[15] Another unique aspect of Botticelli's creation of hair was that he made sure that his creations were very textured. The hair was not a splash of colour but an interwining maze of ropes, braids, pearls and ornaments.^[15] Botticelli also often created hair that was both loose and tight, with the structured tight hair being dressed with ornaments. This was often seen in his images of mythological women^[8]. He had accessories in his hair, pearls, ribbons, all to help the illusions he tried to form of a mix between myth and reality.^[15]  He made sure to blur the line between reality and fantasy to please his buyers who were usually educated rich men who drew inspiration from his art and his styling of hair was a big part of that illusion.^[15]