About this experience
Together we will explore famous images of goddesses and courtesans, heroines of myths and anonymous beauties to find out if there are objective prerequisites for external attractiveness or if it is just a matter of cultural conventions, fashion, and personal taste. You will learn all about beauty standards of different eras, the biological and social determinants of our preferences, and be able to test many hypotheses with the help of special tests. And at the same time, you will learn to understand painting a little better and get a complete overview of the collections of the Vienna Museum of Art History.
What to Expect
Look at famous works of art in a new way
You will see works by masters such as Titian, Rubens, and Gianbologna in the museum and look at them from a certain angle: through the prism of transmitted beauty standards. We will talk about what these standards were in different historical periods in different countries and what they depended on, how they were associatively linked to spiritual beauty and the age category, and how they served the purposes of social identification. I will tell you about the origins of metrosexuality culture, the importance of bras and the color pink for girls, the attitude towards cosmetics in the Baroque era, the juvenilization of female images, and much more. After an enlightening tour of all the painting and sculpture collections of the museum, you will have a clear understanding of the constancy and variability of beauty in its essence.
Psychological tests and modern trends
To delve deeper into the theme of the tour, I will offer you to take several tests. You will choose the most attractive silhouette from those offered, "make up" a girl for a nightclub visit, try to determine a person's gender in a painting by the T-zone, and then we will analyze the results together. You will understand why it is so difficult to remove skinny models from the catwalks today, why hair bleaching will never go out of style, and why even in the 21st century people have a very wary attitude towards transvestism. You will examine Cypriot female idols as an ideal illustration of body types for modern fashion magazines. And with my guidance, you will reflect on the popularity of tanning, the search for the "golden ratio" in art and plastic surgery, body positivity, and many other cultural phenomena of modernity related to physiology that are difficult to comprehend without specialized knowledge.
Organizational Details
- By request, we can visit the temporary exhibition "Titian: Female Images"
- Museum tickets are not included in the tour price
- I will be happy to purchase tickets for you in advance (21 euros per person, free entry for visitors under 19), and we will go straight to the tour without waiting in line
- It would be great if you brought a photo of a celebrity (or just a familiar beauty/handsome person) for periodic comparison with the criteria that will be discussed during the tour
- This art tour is designed for adults. However, if your children can engage in conversation without age discounts and are as interested in art as you are, feel free to bring them along.
