Created on 31st July 2008
Dr Stephen R. Marquardt has revolutionised our perception of beauty with the Marquardt Mask, a mathematical frame of the perfect face
Beauty is everywhere in nature; a sunset, a flower, a cloud formation in the sky and, of course, in a face. Throughout history, from Queen Nefertiti and Helen of Troy, from Botticelli's Venus through the Golden Age of Hollywood to today's supermodels, paeans have been written to beauty but its exact definition has proved elusive.
When someone is described as beautiful we could, of course, be talking about either inner beauty or physical beauty. If we are honest, then we automatically assume we are talking about the physical kind. Similarly, someone could have a fantastic body but we are most affected by the face. It is what we have a reaction to. Personal beauty is generally assumed to imply facial beauty.
For over 2,000 years man has been fascinated with the human face and has made innumerable attempts to reproduce the face in its most idealised form both in art and in life. Many great scientists and philosophers have dedicated a tremendous amount of energy and a few have claimed to have cracked ‘the code of beauty'. However, none of their formulas have proved consistent in analysing faces.
It took US cosmetic surgeon, Dr Stephen R. Marquardt, to finally develop a consistent, applicable mask which could be used as a frame to evaluate the human face. After many years working in the field of maxillofacial surgery (surgery of the jaw and face) and helping those with serious birth or growth defects, he began to think about what could be done, once the serious health problems had been corrected, to alter the frame of the face so it was closer to the ideal. This lead to thinking about what that ideal was. By studying those who were paid to be beautiful, models or movie stars, and studying the mathematical proportions he was able to create the Marquardt Mask.
"Beauty is the bait with which delight allures man to enlarge his kind" - Edmund Spenser
We all know how important beauty is - research has found that good-looking students get better grades from their teachers, attractive patients receive more personalised care from their doctors and it doesn't just help you get the job but can even influence how much you earn. This is not just us being superficial or discriminatory.
Other species use a combination of scent, sound or sight to distinguish their own, but humans are primarily visual animals. Beauty is a way of distinguishing healthy and disease free individuals within our species for mating, bonding, self protection and other survival purposes.
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty" - John Keats
Many researchers into this topic have proposed that there may be recurring geometric themes in the shape or form of the face such as circles, ovals, triangles, squares, curves and angles. Others have proposed mathematical themes, including the square root of 2, gnomic spirals and various proportional relationships, but none of these themes could be applied consistently.
The Greeks said that all beauty is mathematics, so Dr Marquardt looked for a mathematical code or formula to describe facial beauty. But only one mathematical relationship has been consistently and repeatedly reported to be present in beautiful things and this is called the ‘Golden Ratio'. This is the mathematical ratio of 1.618:1 or ‘Phi'. It can be seen in many things in nature, including shells, flowers, teeth, insects, the human body and the human face. By using this as a basis he was able to form a mask that could be applied to all human faces and was able to consistently predict beauty.
"Beauty is power; a smile is its sword" - Charles Reade
But how can the mask be applied to help us in our pursuit of beauty. The more attractive or beautiful a face is the more closely it will match the mask. As an extension of this, the more a face is made to match the mask the more attractive it will be. This means that if we modify the appearance of a face to make it more like the mask it should become more attractive or beautiful.
Cosmetic make-up
For centuries, women have instinctively known that by utilising cosmetics it was possible to enhance their beauty. While many of us get there by trial or error, by using the mask as a guide it is possible to hone our skills - the more the make-up applications approach the mask, the more beautiful we appear and, conversely, the further away from the mask we stray, the less beautiful we will look.
Cosmetic surgery
The mask, in its frontal and side views, can help the surgeon plan the surgical correction of the face or its specific components to more closely approximate the configuration of the ‘Ideal Facial Form'. Surgeons use their own experience and aesthetic sense to produce the best results for their patients, but using the mask can assist in the outcome.
Cosmetic dentistry
The dental version of the mask produces an idealised version of human dentition and by attempting to produce a similar result in the patient, it is possible to get the optimum result from the procedure.
CSMUK
The Human Facial Archetypal Mask(s) are from the results of Dr Stephen R. Marquardt's research on human facial attractiveness. These masks are believed to represent the essence of a universal facial form or shape preference by our entire species. The masks do not represent an ideal or preference peculiar to any particular race(s) or ethnicity(ies).
The Masks are copyright by Dr Stephen R. Marquardt and Marquardt Aesthetic Imaging, Inc. and are courtesy of their website: www.beautyanalysis.com.
Each facial [removed]Neutral, Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust, etc) is believed to have a particular idealised facial form or ‘Mask'.
