Kirjahaku

The pursuit of youth and beauty transcends time periods. As now, women in the early modern period also sought to turn back the clock using cosmetic recipes promising beauty and clear, younger-looking skin. Facing Decay systematically examines early modern visual art, anti-aging recipes, and a range of other writings to investigate the period’s obsession with youth and beauty—and the corollary anxiety about age and decay. It provides the first examination of not only why but how early modern women sought to fight the appearance of old age. Author Erin Griffey argues that youthful skin was not simply a cosmetic pursuit; it was regarded as a signal of health, and thus beauty regimens intersected with medical practice. She takes beauty and its decay seriously and links therapeutic cosmetics to not only medical knowledge but also scientific ingenuity, social benefit, and cultural agency.This interdisciplinary book negotiates both the representations and the practical applications of beauty culture in early modern Europe through the history of art, society, medicine, and science. It is a fascinating and frequently surprising work that should appeal to anyone interested in the history of women, aging, medicine, beauty culture, and beauty recipes.

In the early modern period, rulers demonstrated their power and influence through carefully curated “display”—their presence in court ceremonies, their palaces and their contents, and their portraits. Henrietta Maria of France (1609–1669), queen consort of King Charles I of England, embraced these opportunities for display with particular flair. This richly illustrated book follows Henrietta Maria through and beyond the Bourbon and Stuart courts to chart her patronage and engagement with the visual arts, building works, and the luxury trade. It develops a powerful picture not just of the images, fashions, interiors, and buildings shaped by the queen’s directorial influence but also of the political and religious factors that governed her choices and policies of court display. Her cultural patronage in particular emphasized her family honor, dynastic clout, Catholic piety, feminine virtue, and discerning taste. Erin Griffey analyzes the full spectacle of the queen’s represented image, not only through the well-known portraits by Sir Anthony van Dyck but also through her rich bed ensembles, tapestries, jewelry, clothing, and devotional goods—the objects that embodied and conveyed her royal power.Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art