The fine art of beauty in early modern Europe

Humans have been adorning themselves since Palaeolithic times, but it’s women, across history, who have faced constant pressure to remain young and beautiful.

What is surprising though, says art historian Erin Griffey, the author of a new book about beauty, ageing and cosmetics in early modern Europe, are the similarities between ideals of beauty today and those from that period (c. 1500-c. 1700).

Griffey, a professor of art history at the University of Auckland, says it’s remarkable how, for example, the close association of beauty with youth, and the social significance of beauty, have remained across history and cultures.

“Although men, too, have been invested in their physical appearance, across time, women are clearly singled out for having more at stake socially but also greater expertise in, and use of, beauty practices.”

She says her book Facing Decay: Beauty, Aging, and Cosmetics in Early Modern Europe (Penn State University Press, 2025) is wide-ranging and takes in cultural history – art, literature, drama – as well as science and medicine.

“As I’m primarily an art historian, I travelled across Europe to see relevant artworks that depict youthful beauty and aged decay, and a particular favourite is Lucas Cranach’s Fountain of Youth in Berlin as it so vividly portrays the transformation from aged bodies to youthful beauty.

“I also visited archives to read manuscript beauty recipe books from that time period, including works at the Wellcome Library in London.”

Griffey says many of the recipes, which feature ingredients commonly used today, like rose water, nut oils, and honey, have been transmitted across a very long time span and across geographical regions, but some were more confronting and are not in use today.

“I found some ingredients shocking to my ‘modern, animal-loving values’, for example, puppy fat. And I was struck, too, by just how long many of these recipes took to make; it could be intense physical work, not to mention needing the knowledge and experience to make them in the first place.”

One of the most popular recipes, she says, is a simple decoction of rosemary flowers and white wine, which appears in numerous sources, including a small, anonymously published book in Italian called Corona de le donne (Ferrara, 1526):

To make the face beautiful and the breath scented
Take rosemary flowers and boil them with white wine and with this wine wash the face and also if you drink said wine you will conserve your health making the face beautiful and the breath scented.

This is one of several recipes that Griffey recreated in the lab with scientists at the University of Auckland, and it still works.

“It provided fascinating insight into the making process and the formula created, as well as the chemical compounds and their enduring efficacy in enhancing the appearance of skin,” she says.

We see many of the same approaches to beautifying and ingredients in cosmetic formulas today, she says.

“I was impressed by how sophisticated the thinking and experimentation was; these recipes were based on rational, medical approaches and scientific experimentation as well as empirical evidence.”

But the pressure to look beautiful for women, especially those of high rank, was no light matter; rather it could determine the whole future course of their lives, how well they could marry, for example, so beautifying recipes were in high demand, says Griffey.

“Cosmetic recipes catered to a range of female consumers, from queens and the elite to middle-class women. Some were accessible for women of modest means, with convenient, inexpensive ingredients like eggs.”

Along with several other academics from various universities, Griffey does an annual research trip to a particular European place to view all things beauty-related in the archives, libraries and galleries, and for this book’s research, travelled across Austria, and to Venice, Paris and London.

“Next year we may do Madrid, and it doesn’t end here; my next project has a working title of Beauty Queens: Court Portraits and Cosmetic Practices in Tudor and Stuart England.”

Her hope is that this book will be read not only by an audience of scholars and students of early modern Europe, but also the wider public, as many of its themes, in this age of the influencer and the enormous power of the beauty industry, still consume us.

“Certainly, the content and questions it raises about beauty and ageing are not only timely but timeless. I think many will be familiar with the pressures and practices it discusses.”