Did Europeans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries really idealize fat (Rubenesque) women?
Examining the widely held belief Jaime Confer and Devendra Singh, University of Texas at Austin There are many widely held beliefs about what is considered beautiful and the nature of beauty that are rarely critically examined. One such belief is the claim that what we presently judge as unattractive was once considered attractive. Almost exclusively, the evidence presented to justify this notion contrasts Rubens’ (1577-1640) paintings of fat women with present-day idolization of thin women. It is not clear whether Rubens’ paintings represent a sixteenth and seventeenth century European ideal of beauty or if they represent his personal predilections. If indeed Rubens was depicting societal exemplars of beauty, one would expect a significant proportion of Baroque artists to also portray attractive women as heavy-set. If, however, Rubens is found to portray atypical depictions of women for that era, one would conclude that Rubens’ paintings reflect his personal taste rather than the tren
