I grew a bit tired of reading about the 18th century and took a little break into the 17th instead. It is one of my favourite periods, and I think it is a pity that it isn't better loved. This is meant as an overview over makeup and hairstyles, which means that there are things I don't mention. The focus is on European upper class ladies, the gentlemen will get their own post. I have chosen paintings that are good examples, but also from known beauties, to give a sense of what kind of looks that were popular. Click on the links under each picture to see the whole painting.
Black and
rowling is her eye,
Double
chinn’d and forehead high:
Lips she
has, all Rubie red
Cheeks like
Creame Enclaritéd:
And a nose
that is the grace
And
Procenium of her face. /Robert Herrick
 |
Detail from a portrait of Anna Margareta von Haugwitz,
by Anselm van Hulle, 1649.
Anna Margareta, an impoverished German noblewoman
embodies the 17th century beauty ideal well. With nothing
but her looks she didn't have much of a prospect, until she
met and wed Count Carl Gustaf Wrangel, the richest man
in Sweden. A mutual love match and a very happy marriage. |
The ideal
beauty of the 17th century should have a fair, round or oval face
with a well-proportioned nose. A high forehead and a small double chin. Dimples
in chin and cheek . The eyes should be large and dark, the mouth quite small,
but with full lips, the lower one should be fuller than the upper. The teeth
should be white and clean and in equal size. The hair could be any colour, but brunettes
seem to have been very popular, but
regardless of colour it should be long, thick, curly and cleanly kept.
Pale skin
was considered attractive and upper class ladies took care not to be
sun-burned. Makeup was also used to make the skin appear as fair as possible.
Corson makes a distinction between enamelled and powdered ladies where the
first category painted themselves with thick layers of makeup, which gave the
skin a slight sheen. Powdered ladies had a more matte skin-tone and probably a
more natural look. A late 17th century recommendation was to rub the
face with poppy seed oil and then use a white powder made of calcinated bone. There
were also pink and flesh-coloured powders, which perhaps didn’t look natural,
but indicates that a dead white face wasn’t always wanted.
White paint
could be made of talk or pearl powder, with is quite harmless, and Bismuth
could be used as well. But the number one white pigment was Ceruse, made of lead, which is very harmful, and mercury which is possibly even worse. There
are, for example, a recipe were equal parts of lead white and mercury chloride
( also a white powder) are mixed with lemon juice and rose water to whiten the
face. As both pigments are extremely poisonous, it can hardly have been a good
idea to use that!
When
studying portraits from the period, those from the first two decades seems to
have the thickest layers of white makeup, none, or very faint rouge and lip
colour and the eyebrows are left in their natural state. As the century
progresses the white makeup looks less heavily applied and rouge came into more
use. It is usually sparingly applied, aiming for a quite natural looks, though
the mouth is often very red.
A bit
bizarre, but not harmful, unless one was allergic to shellfish, was rouge made
from boiled crabs. Vermillion, red pigment derived from mercury was common, but
there were safer alternatives as well. Tinctures coloured with sandalwood, brazil
wood, carnation, cloves, or cardamoms would provide a safe rouge. Cochineal were
also used, which meant that rouge could be found in both warm and cold red
tones. For ladies not belonging to the upper classes, cheaper rouge pigmented
with ochre were available, which they evidently used quite liberally.
Eyebrows
are kept groomed and though there are recipes for blackening them, they usually look quite natural on portraits. There also seem to have been some use
of eye shadow. There are portraits were eyes seems to be shaded with brown or
grey and Bulwer rages against the fashion of “painting circles around the eyes”
in the mid-17th century. He also mentions tawny as one of the
colours used in facial makeup, which is a yellow brown shade which seems more
suitable for eye shadow than anything else.
For ladies
not wanting to paint, there were a number of washes aimed for giving the skin
an even a lustrous looks. Some contained talc or ceruse, which would help
whiten the face without making it look painted. Regardless if makeup were used
or not, the advice for facial care was to wash the face with warm water and a
wash ball (soap mixed with herbs and spices), dry it use a wash of some kind
like bran water and rub in some pomatum. A beauty regime quite close to modern
standards. A lady who steered clear of lead and mercury could probably have a
quite nice skin with such habits.
The fashion
of patches became huge during the 17th century and ladies could wear
many of them at once, all over the face. The black patches were made from satin,
taffeta and, for a cheaper alternative, paper, and were gummed to make sure
they stuck. At the end of the century, they were used more sparingly, but they
were still very popular.
Perfumes
were very popular, most of them quite heavy with musk, ambergris and civet. As
a comparison, today a perfume has one, or possibly two, of those ingredients (synthetics today)
acting as base notes, which grounds the perfume and makes it long-lasting, but
very little is used as to not make it too over-whelming. In the 17th
century you could find perfumes which solely contained these three very
overpowering scents in equal amounts. There were also perfumed made of ox dung
which to my modern nose seems rather disgusting. Perfumes could be similarly
made to modern ones, but they could also be found as powder, oils, and hard
pomades, wax mixed essential oil. One recipes in Plocacosmos, for example,
contains wax and oil of musk and cinnamon. Gloves were usually scented and
powder could be sewn into small bags for scenting linens or kept in clothes.
Dental
medical care was practically non-existent, so even if the ideal was a full
mouth of white teeth, it must have been an ideal that few possessed. There were
various recipes for dentifrice powders and though some contained abrasive
powders like pumice stone, not all of them were and shows that there were an
interest in at least trying to keep the teeth nice.
The fashion
for hair powder took the first wobbly steps in the 17th century and
provided an easy way to change the colour of the hair, but it doesn’t seem to
have been universally used. Hair in portraits are often depicted as glossy,
something that powder effectively remove. There were also various recipes for
hair dye, promising tresses in gold, white as silver, yellow, red, black and
green! I wonder who wanted green hair. To keep the curls in place Gummi
Arabicum of egg-white were used.
The first
two decades or so, the popular hairstyle was rather high, the hair were brushed
over a padded form to form a kind of halo around the face. It was smooth and
often decorated at the highest point. Originally quite high at the top, it gradually became more rounded around the face.
Aged around ten, the princess is dressed and styled as an adult.
Newly wed at the age of 17, the former princess' hair is several shades darker than when she was ten.
The Swedish queen is quite pale, but doesn't seem to be using either rouge or lip paint.
This
fashion doll from around 1600 gives a glimpse of how it may have looked from
other angles.
Around 1620
the big hair disappears and during a transitional period hair gets flatter and looks quite short around the face.
Eventually a style develops that with some variations remains fashionable for the next 50 years. The hair on the top of the head and the back is drawn into a knot, while the hair on the sides is hanging down, either frizzed or curled. During the 1630's a short fringe, or curls over the forehad, were popular.
During the 1640-50's the hair is often parted round the crown of the head and the front hair is parted in the middle and curled.
Not considered a beauty, Queen Kristina seem to have had a beautiful hair.
 |
Detail from a portrait of Maria Eufrosyne and her husband Count Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie by Hendrik Münnichhoven, 1653
The portrait is rife with symbolics meanings. Maria Eufrosyne, first cousin of Queen Kristina is standing one step higher than her husband to show his lowlier birth, but he is stepping one step before her to show his superiority as man and husband. And if her loose gown wasn't enough to indicate pregnancy, she is also holding a bean pod in her hand. |
The arrangement of curls grow more complicated.
When the curls
got wider around the face, it sometimes had to rely on wire to keep the shape.
Around 1670
the hurluberlu, or hurly-burly, becomes popular. Dense curls were clustered
over the ears, sometimes with longer curls hanging down from them.
There were
also a hairstyle were the curls were kept more close to the head around the head and flat on the sides, with a large, low
chignon at the back.
In the
1680’s the hairstyles started to become higher again, with or without the
fontange, a layered starched and wired linen structure, to achieve even higher heights.
Then, of course, there was the Spanish influence, doing its own thing, both when it came to fashion and hairstyling.
Sources
Corson, Richard, Fashions In Makeup, 1972
Kipar,
Nicole, Female Hairstyles
Pointer, Sally, The Artifice of Beauty, 2005
Salmon,
William, Polygraphice: Or the Arts of Drawing, Engraving, Etching, Limming,
Painting, Washing, Varnishing, Gilding, Colouring, Dying, Beautifying and
Perfuming : in Seven Books. 1685
Read more
Beauty in the 17th century
Courtly beauty secrets from the 17thcentury
Evils of Artifice
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