Beauty is often in the eye of the beholder. Women who were considered the epitome of beauty in bygone years, might not be considered beautiful a century later. However, some aspects of beauty never change. According to a recent scientific theory, the features of classically beautiful people conform to the proportions of Phi.
It is generally acknowledged that Lady Emma Hamilton was the beauty of her age. Despite her base background and lack of education, she managed to attract the admiration of artists, writers, and aristocratic lovers and husbands.
“Emma was luscious,” history tells us, “with a lovely girlish face on a full woman’s body barely concealed by the thin muslin dresses she wore” (Russell 31). And it was the juxtaposition of those soft facial features with a decadently opulent figure–a voluptuous goddess with the face of an angel–that made Lady Hamilton the definitive contemporary incarnation of timeless beauty:
Nothing could be more beautiful than her countenance or more commanding than her figure at this time; the first had an unusual mixture of angelic softness . . . the other . . . would equally have served for the splendour of an Imperial throne, or the couch of voluptuous sensuality. (Sherrard 232)
Her peaches-and-cream complexion, a “velvet skin of lilies and roses“ (Barrington 375), endowed her with the fair features that have been revered as the epitome of feminine loveliness throughout history. In her letters, Emma herself marvelled: “I am remarkably fair, that every body says; I put on red and white” (Sherrard 93). She also possessed “long auburn hair (with a hint of gold) and blue-grey eyes” (Peakman 7). Society raved about her “rounded arms” (Barrington 96). For the source of the above quotes, click here to enter The Judgment of Paris site.
The painter George Romney became obsessed with Lady Hamilton’s features, depicting her in a variety of mythical disguises over the years. Viewing his paintings of her, one can gain a fairly accurate idea of the kind of beauty Jane Austen was thinking about when she described Emma Woodhouse:
“I either depend more upon Emma’s good sense than you do, or am more anxious for her present comfort; for I cannot lament the acquaintance. How well she looked last night!””Oh! you would rather talk of her person than her mind, would you? Very well; I shall not attempt to deny Emma’s being pretty.”
“Pretty! say beautiful rather. Can you imagine any thing nearer perfect beauty than Emma altogether—face and figure?”
“I do not know what I could imagine, but I confess that I have seldom seen a face or figure more pleasing to me than her’s. But I am a partial old friend.”
“Such an eye!—the true hazel eye—and so brilliant! regular features, open countenance, with a complexion! Oh! what a bloom of full health, and such a pretty height and size; such a firm and upright figure! There is health, not merely in her bloom, but in her air, her head, her glance. One hears sometimes of a child being ‘the picture of health;’ now, Emma always gives me the idea of being the complete picture of grown-up health. She is loveliness itself. Mr. Knightley, is not she?”
“I have not a fault to find with her person,” he replied. “I think her all you describe. I love to look at her; and I will add this praise, that I do not think her personally vain. Considering how very handsome she is, she appears to be little occupied with it; her vanity lies another way. – Emma, Volume 1, Chapter 5
Learn more about Emma Hamilton in the following links:
- Emma Hamilton, Wikipedia Article
- Introducing Emma Hamilton, Walker Art Gallery
- Emma and George Romney, National Portrait Gallery
Jane Austen's World 
