Beauty is subjective, with each individual having their own definition. Research suggests that human standards for beauty may be genetic, but poets and painters argue that inner beauty enhances outer appearance. The Golden Ratio has been used to judge human beauty, with faces and waist-to-hip ratios conforming closest to the ratio being found more attractive. Inner harmony combined with physical beauty produces an effect that nature alone cannot. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 103 compares his mistress’s beauty to more beautiful things, finding his love rare despite her imperfections.
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” seems to have an almost literal meaning. It indicates that beauty means something different to each individual. What one person finds beautiful, another may not. As the English philosopher David Hume said, “The beauty in things exists in the mind that contemplates them”.
The concept of beauty in the eye of the beholder could go back to ancient Greece. In another age, Shakespeare, in Love’s Labor Lost, wrote “Beauty is bought with the judgment of the eye/Not pronounced by the cowardly sale of the chapmen’s tongue.” The exact phrase was first used in the 19th century by the Irish writer Margaret Wolfe Hungerford in her book Molly Brawn.
In regards to human beauty, some research indicates that human standards for beauty may be genetic. It is nature’s way of ensuring the best reproductive selection. Poets and painters tend to disagree, arguing that human beauty encompasses more than biology. It is contained not only in the body but also in the mind. Inner beauty enhances the outer appearance.
Some scientific research into what makes us find someone beautiful points to our DNA. Perceptions of beauty are essentially a function of evolution. They are mostly uniform and help ensure selection of a healthy mate for breeding purposes.
Long before the discoveries in genetics, Greek mathematicians discovered that beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, but in geometry. Human beauty could be judged by how closely it conforms to the “Golden Ratio.” The formula states that a longer triangle should have a ratio of 1.618 to its shorter base. It was applied by the Greeks in architecture and art and used in later ages.
More recent research has applied the formula to people’s faces and women’s waist-to-hip ratio. One study found that faces that conform closest to the golden ratio were found by participants to be more attractive. The same was true for waist-to-hip ratios. Findings like this are also related to innate reproductive selection, based on choosing the best body structure for pregnancy.
Uzbek painter Abdulhak Abdullaev dedicated a lifetime to painting portraits of people who created beauty or who he felt had an inner beauty. He concluded that “Every person is a flower with his own unique aroma of personal charm”. The beauty of the mind is worn on the face. Physical beauty and inner harmony combined produce an effect that nature alone cannot. He found this to be true regardless of the age or condition of his subject.
In his Sonnet 103, Shakespeare may have rendered one of the best interpretations of the meaning of beauty in the eye of the beholder. He compares his mistress’s beauty to more beautiful things, listing some of her imperfections. He still manages to find: “Yet, by heaven, I think my love is rare / Like any other he belied with false comparison.”
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
