Last week Robert Mealing posted some JPEGs from the Bibliothèque nationale de France to the Aeclectic Tarot Forum. As usual, his side-by-side comparisons with appropriate related decks were attractive and informative. However, I was most taken with the queen of coins. Quite the cutie with pushed-up boobs and a baby face -- high rounded forehead, big eyes, plump cheeks, tiny nose, small mouth and full lips, slightly receding chin.
In 2006, Dr Martin Grundl, chair of applied psychology at the University of Regensburg in Germany, ran a study using computer-generated faces to find which features people found most attractive. Women with high, wide foreheads were found more beautiful. Grundl says this is because we are attuned to prefer babylike features because they indicate youth and fertility. "Given a set of female faces morphed with those of children, the test subjects were asked to indicate which version they found most attractive," he says. "The results show that childlike characteristics - large round eyes, a large curved forehead and a small, short nose and chin - can enhance attractiveness. "Only very few (9.5 per cent) rated women with mature features as being most attractive. Most of the preferred female faces contained childlike proportions of 10 to 50 per cent."
Leah Hardy, Daily Mail, 1/14/2008
How cosmetic surgeons decide what small changes will make a woman beautiful
My previous Tarot crush was Bianca Sforza. Judging by the full-page illustration (of a woman having so little significance to Tarot history) facing page 1 of Kaplan's Encyclopedia of Tarot (v.II), and a second reproduction of the painting on page 112 of the same book, I must not be the only one who thought she was cute. Ambrogio de Predis painted this picture of the illegitimate daughter of Duke Lodovico Sforza.
Post on Aeclectic Tarot Forum:
Interesting TdM Mold
Dr. Grundl's beauty study referred to above is presented online at Beautycheck. Among the more interesting sections are the Summary, Babyfaceness, and Beautiful Figure pages. The full report can be downloaded as a PDF file, in German.
