아름다움 美 Beauty

 

 

 

 

 

An 18th century Korean beauty.

Attributed to Kim Hong-Do (A.D. 1745- ?)

© Seoul National University Museum.

 

 

 

지금까지 아름다움이 존재할 수 있는 원리는 조화나 균형에 있다고 여겨왔다. 플라톤에 의하면 모든 미적 대상은 ‘미’의 이데아를 분유(分有)함으로써 비로소 아름답다고 하였다. 미는 개체의 감각적 성질에 있는 것이 아니라 모든 미적 대상에 불변부동(不變不動)의 ‘형태’로 나타나는 초감각적 존재이며 균형 ·절도 ·조화 등이 미의 원리라고 하였다. 중세의 T.아퀴나스는 미를 완전성 ·조화 ·빛남 속에서 구하였다. 즉 그는 “미는 완전성과 조화를 갖춘 사물이 거기에 간직된 형상의 빛남을 통해서 인식될 때 비로소 기쁨을 자아낸다. 미는 신의 빛이고 그 빛을 받아서 완전한 형태로서 빛나는 것”이라고 보았다. 그런데 이와 같은 고전적인 이념과는 달리 근대에 와서는 때때로 동적이고 발전적 생명감의 발로로서 혼돈된 전체 속에 미가 추구된다. 예를 들면 19세기의 낭만파 사람들은 고대인들이 추구한 조화의 이상을 버리고, 내면적 부조화 속에서 감정의 충일과 자아의 열광에 의해서 새로운 예술미가 창조된다고 생각하였다. 또한 미는 변하지 않는 형상(形相)에 있는 것이 아니라 단지 현상(現象)으로 나타나는 것으로, 숙명적으로 덧없는(Hinflligkeit) 성질을 가지고 있다고도 설명하였다. 또한 19세기 말의 예술가들에게는 미라는 것이 이미 일정한 규범에 입각한 영원부동의 원리가 아니라 그것은 오히려 관능의 도취를 가져오는 생명의 연소(燃燒)이며 찰나적인 감각의 충족감에 지나지 않았다. 이러한 생각을 끝까지 밀고 나간다면 ‘미는 난조(亂調) 속에 있다’는 결론이 나올 수 있다. 그러나 ‘덧없는’ 미도 일정한 질서감각이 무너지는 순간에만 나타날 것이므로 그 자체가 고전적인 미의 이상을 전제로 하고 있다고 말할 수 있다.

‘영원’이란 관념을 가지지 않는 사람의 눈에는 ‘멸망하고 있는 것의 아름다움’도 비치지 않을 것이다. 덧없는 아름다움이 우리들 앞에 나타나는 현상의 배후에는 고전적 질서를 지향하는 아름다움의 좌절을 통해서 혼돈에의 불가피한 충동이 눈을 뜨게 된다는 생명의 역학(力學)이 숨어 있다. 미는 원래 ‘진 ·선 ·미’로 병칭되어, 인간이 추구해야 할 중요한 가치로 여겨왔다. 미는 특히 선과 밀접하게 관련된다. 플라톤은 미(칼로스:kalos)와 선(아가톤:agathon)이 하나가 된 상태로서 칼로카가티아(kalokagathia:아름답고 선한 것)라는 이상을 내세우고 있다. 인생에 유용한 것, 목적에 합치된 것이 선인 동시에 미라고 여겼다. 이에 반해서 근대 미학에서 미는 오로지 우리들의 감성에 조응(照應)하는 것이라고 생각하였기 때문에 미를 선으로부터 분리시키는 경향을 나타냈다.

E.칸트에 의하면 미는 단순히 감성적 인식으로서 주어지는 것이므로, 아름다움의 쾌감은 존재에 대한 무관심성에서 성립된다. 그것은 일반적인 쾌락과 같은 경향성에 의한 속박도 없고 존경에 의한 명령도 없으며, 사람의 마음 속에 형성되는 만족감으로서 자유스러운 놀이의 상태에서 발견할 수 있다. 그런 뜻에서 선이나 유용성이 요구하는 합목적성으로부터 해방되어 있다. 미는 도덕법과 같이 보편적 승인을 요구하지 않으나, 승인을 기대한다. 쾌락에 대한 판단은 전적으로 주관적인 것이지만 미적 판단은 보편성 ·객관성이 요구된다. 그러나 그 보편성은 진(眞)이나 선(善)의 판단에서 요구되는 것과 같은 개념의 보편성은 아니다. 따라서 미는 ‘개념 없이 보편적으로 만족을 주는 것’으로 정의된다. 이와 같이 칸트의 이론에서 미는 독자적인 감성적 인식의 영역에서 그 위치를 차지한다. 그러나 미를 진이나 선에서 분리시키고 감성에 대응하는 면에서만 추구해갈 때에 미는 악과 결부되는 경향으로 흐르기 시작한다. 실제로 19세기 말의 데카당스나 위기시대의 C.P.보들레르나 O.와일드, J.P.사르트르나 J.주네에 의해서 미와 악 또는 배덕(背德)과의 결부가 추구되었던 것이다. 미가 진이나 선과 단절되면, 반대로 부조리나 악과 결합된다. 그만큼 미의 자율성을 확립하기란 곤란한 일이다.

 

 

 

 

 

Egypt Feature Story

The Ancient Egyptian Concept of Beauty

by Maggie Rutherford

 

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this is never more true than seen over time and between different cultures. Over time, our concept of beauty seems to fluctuate, particularly concerning people, sometimes favoring rather heavy individuals and at other times very skinny ones. In different cultures, parts of the body may be purposefully exaggerated in the name of beauty, the effects of which might even seem grotesque to those of another culture. For example, various tribes throughout the world use different methods to lengthen necks, exaggerate mouths, ears and even the shape of the head.

 

Nevertheless, there does appear to be certain classical concepts of beauty that are not inconsistent with many of our modern views, and it would seem that the ancient Egyptian concepts of beauty are not very different, at least in regards to the human form. At the same time, Egyptians seem to have been just as influenced by beauty, if not more so, than we are in our modern world. Indeed, it seems at time that beauty may have even been a part concept related to ma'at, the order that Egyptian's saw in their world.

 

For example, foreign lands were considered by the ancient Egyptians to be a part of chaos, the opposite of ma'at, and foreigners are very often depicted in a form very different than the ancient Egyptians themselves, and in a very different artistic style. Frequently, they may even be represented in a more realistic, and much less idealistic style. A classical example is that of the Queen of Punt recorded during the reign of Hatshepsut, but prisoners were very often represented in very less than ideal forms.

 

Our evidence on how the ancient Egyptians viewed beauty comes from many different sources, including pictorial, sculptures in the round and various textual. Much of it affirms a specific model of beauty, particularly in individuals and perhaps even more specifically in females.

 

 

 

 

Foreigners from Ramesses III Temple at Medinet Habu,

depicted almost in the style of Egyptian women

 

 

 

Sometimes, ancient Egyptians did not have specific words that relate to modern conceptual ideas. For example, there seems to have been no real term that referred to art in general. At other times, they developed a number of conceptual terms for certain ideas.

An example of this is the concept of beauty.

In studying the ancient Egyptian's idea of beauty, it is useful to examine the many words they used for this concept.

 

There were two adjectives that were used to describe beautiful things, or beautiful people, consisting of "n" and "nfr". The term nfr, which is usually written as nefer in modern Egyptological works, was one of the most common, used in names and even sometimes used up until the present day. There are also substantives and even verbs related to this term. The verbs derived from nfr include snfr, which means beautifully or embellished. nfrw or nfr, and later bw nfr, may also be used as an abstract concept of beauty. And while the term nfr or nfrt may be used to describe a man or a woman, the term appears to have more significance than simply meaning a beautiful person. In fact, these terms often refer to a specific category of individual, and they can reveal something of what the Egyptians regarded as beautiful.

 

For example, a young women referred to as nfrwt is sometimes described as "never having been opened in childbirth" as in the Westcar Papyrus. We find at Ramesses III's palace at Medinet Habu on the West Bank of Luxor (ancient Thebes) a list of captured foreigners including a reference to nfrwt as a category of female between child and mature woman.

 

 

 

Nfrw, the masculine version of the same word, is found in several instances when it clearly refers to young men or young people.

 

In one instance, it can even be translated as "recruits". Certain cows are even referenced as nfrwt.

 

We might also examine a number of phrases or terms that include the adjective nfr.

 

Imntt nfrt, for example, meaning "the Beautiful West", is found often in tombs and funerary texts to describe the city of the dead.

 

Hdt refers to the White Crown of Upper Egypt, but sometimes we see the phrase hdt nfrt and sometimes even nfrt.

 

The king is very often described as the ntr nfr, an epithet which is generally translated as "the Good God," but the "Beautiful God" is also an accurate meaning.

 

However, in a coregency, the term ntr nfr is used to designate the more youthful ruler.

 

 

 

 

 In this situation, the older ruler, usually the father, is referred to as ntr'3, meaning the "Great God." In this regard, even though the younger ruler may not be so young, the younger of the two is referred to as nfr.

 

Indeed. the connection that seems to exist between youth and the descriptive term nfr may be an important clue to understanding the ancient Egyptian concept of beauty. In Egyptian art, the ideal form is a youthful and slim figure with narrow hips, which anthropometric studies of pharaonic mummies have revealed is a fair representation of reality, at least in the case of Egyptian women. Furthermore, their hip to shoulder proportions are not greatly different from those found in male Egyptian mummies. While both sexes may be depicted in this way, representations of males are more likely to vary from the ideal.

 

In fact, age, when women are depicted, is most often represented subtly, in the form of a slightly drooping derriere, subtly sagging breasts or pouching cheeks, occasionally with horizontal lines across the torso, indicating an increased weight. Usually, the artistic elements are detectable only by close examination and comparison of with other representations. one of the most famous and explicit representations of youth and age in a woman's body is that of the funerals of Nebamun and Ipuky, who both married the same woman. The two funerals are depicted as taking place simultaneously. The representations of the widow show her with bared breasts both firm, and then drooping with a change in profile to suggest a sagging chin in the older version of the woman.

 

 

 

 

 

However, representations of the king are often particularly subtle. one must look for almost imperceptible clues that may suggest advancing age of a ruler. For example, in studying numerous depictions of Amenhotep III and his family, it was discovered that the king's torso was depicted as being somewhat thicker than that of other men.

 

Yet, during various periods of Egyptian history, wealthy tomb owners sometimes wished to emphasize their sagacity, and therefore actually had themselves represented as older men. Tomb scenes could show aged courtiers, who were depicted with toothless faces and heavy sagging bellies.

 

In fact, during the Amarna Period, bowing elderly court functionaries appear in many of the scenes behind the figure of the king and queen. Note however that wrinkles are rarely shown on either sex, and gray hair is very rare. In fact, the Ebers Papyrus contains remedies not only for wrinkles, but also for baldness and graying hair, indicating that the ancient Egyptians, like their modern counterparts, at least attempted to retain the appearance of youth during their lifetimes.

 

 

 

 

 

Clearly, the attributes of youth were considered beautiful in ancient Egypt, but we may also examine more precise elements that were considered beautiful in an individual. In love poetry, as well as hymns to Hathor, the goddess of beauty, some sense of what was considered physically beautiful in people may be found.

 

For example, in many poems, Hathor is defined as "golden," which might be a reference to her complexion. Indeed, the skin of gods was often represented in gold.

 

In the Papyrus of Chester Beatty I, the writer is explicit, mentioning his beloved scent, her hair, her eyes and her buttocks. From the same papyrus, another romantic poem describes the object of his affection as being ""bright" of skin, her arm "more brilliant than gold," long-necked and "white-breasted," hair of "genuine lapis lazuli," (blue?) and fingers like lotus blooms.

 

It also mentions her beautiful thighs and heavy buttocks. He also admired her swift walk, sweet voice and, an age old compliment from men, her ability to know when to stop talking.

 

Scent and color both seem important elements in many erotic texts, where the lover might desire to see the color of his beloved's limbs. In a Third Intermediate Period (25th Dynasty) hymn, recorded on the Louvre stela C100, there is a description of the priestess Mutirdis, who has locks of hair black as night and dark as "wine-grapes," "brilliant" arms, firm breasts and a complexion "like jasper."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Females are referred to much more in terms of beauty than are men. However, in the "Blinding of Truth by falsehood," a woman desires Truth, a man more handsome than anyone else in the country.

 

She bears his child, who looks like a young god. Hatshepsut also tells us, at Deir el-Bahri, that when the god Amun appears in the bedroom of her mother, Queen Ahmes, her mother is awakened by his divine fragrance, which permeates the whole palace as they make love.

 

Hatshepsut herself is described as appearing before her subjects with skin like electrum (a silver-gold alloy) and smelling like all the perfumes of Punt.

 

Clearly, an alluring scent is connected in the ancient Egyptian mind with divine beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At other times, beauty is described indirectly by analogy or simile. For example, in Papyrus Harris 500, a poem written fairly late in Egypt's pharaonic history (about 500 BC) with a female narrator describes herself as being like a field planted with sweet-smelling herbs. She also compares her love's voice to pomegranate wine.

 

This is reminiscent of an amazing talking pomegranate tree mentioned in Papyrus Turin 1966, which compares a beloved's teeth to pomegranate seeds and her breasts to the whole fruit. We are not so sure why the teeth would be compared to pomegranate seeds, however.

 

Similarly, a male of Cairo Vase 25218 says that he feels immersed in perfume when he embraces his beloved, as if he were in the land of incense. He also claims to be drunk "without beer" when he kisses her.

 

Color is also important in nonliterary depictions of the ideal form. Men are almost universally shown with red or reddish-brown skin. Women are frequently shown with paler skins, although the color used by artists varies over time. In Old Kingdom representations, we see women with pinkish white skin. During the Middle and early New Kingdom, their skin is often yellowish.

 

Later in the New Kingdom, the shades returned to pink or were pale orange. Goddesses, on the other hand, had yellow or "golden" skin throughout the New Kingdom.

 

 

 

 

Only during the Amarna Period do we sometimes find male and female with the same, darker reddish skin color. Some Egyptologists have attempted to explain this color variation as the work of the sun.

 

Hence, upper class women remained indoors while men were out in the sun, so that a lighter-skinned woman appeared more aristocratic. Indeed, men depicted with newly shaved heads are often represented with a paler scalp than the rest of their skin, and elderly men are sometimes also shown with paler skin.

 

However, there was also doubtless symbolic meaning. Certainly this is true for the skin of goddesses.

 

Beauty in humans as well as in other animals or objects may also have included symmetry as a necessary component. In both art and architecture the ancient Egyptians favored the rectilinear geometric outline over the curved. Therefore the ideal male body may be summarized as being bounded by two triangles. one is that of the torso, consisting of broad shoulders exaggerated in two-dimensional images by frontal positioning and a narrow waist, shown in three quarter view.

 

The other is the striding legs. The bodies of women were tailored to fit within a long rectangle. Their shoulders were of course narrower than the male's and the feet were together or with one slightly advanced.

 

Only during the Amarna Period does this ideal symmetry vary, but that period's art is so profoundly different than the remainder of Egyptian history as to be a subject unto itself.

 

 

It is also likely that, though royal depictions and even those of common people varied considerably during this period reflecting a new form of official royal beauty, the idea of real beauty probably did not change among the general population. In fact, the royal bust of Nefertiti, the wife of Akhenaten (founder of the Amarna Period) was, and is considered to be a classical example of female beauty (or at least of facial features).

 

 

 

The Bust of Nefertiti, now in Berlin

 

 

 

The elite who commissioned tombs are depicted in much the same way as those of royalty, for the most part. Drastic departures from the slim, youthful and healthy norm are seen primarily in those of lower status. For example, pattern baldness is depicted in representations of herdsmen and other lower class males. Even for the lower classes, age and obesity are rarely shown in women.

 

Sculptures in the round also seem to portray what the Egyptians believed to be beautiful. Kings are frequently depicted as very powerful humans, with well formed and well toned muscles.

 

Women, on the other hand, or represented in the round as slender, graceful forms. on the other hand those, particularly non-royal statuary, may at times be more realistic. We find many touching statues of more common people who do not exactly fit the ideal form, and so therefore it may seem that statuary was less of an indication of perfect beauty than that of paintings and reliefs.

 

It is not only people who may be described as beautiful. In Papyrus Turin 1966, a sycamore fig is described as being beautiful. It has leaves greener than turquoise, branches like faience, wood the color of feldspar and fruits as red as jasper. The beautiful jewel-like colors of the tree are an integral part of its beauty. There are many other instances of descriptions related to beautiful inanimate objects, including that of the Nile, the Western mountains and even Egypt itself.

 

It is also clear that Egyptians saw beauty in many other objects that are even to this day beautiful to us. This obviously includes many items of jewelry, ornate boxes and items made of pottery and various stone, and these items that we see today in museums speak to us of the ancient Egyptian's love of beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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