Hey guys! Recently I started following a facebook page called Arts&Emotions, and they show a variety of different artworks and artists. One interesting video they posted showed how women’s features and appearances have changed in art over the past 500 years.

I really enjoy this video because it shows the change over time in paintings. I also love how unique the portraits get towards the 1900s, especially since artist were aiming to show the same subject matter in new and unique ways. Additionally, when looking at some of these paintings you can see that many of the women are showing off their left side/cheek.

In a study by Annukka Lindell, a senior lecturer in experimental neuropsychology at La Trobe University in Melbourne, it was discovered that “the left side of the face is seen as more attractive because it is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain, which is in charge of a person’s emotions.” It’s possible that by having figures face their left side a viewer can feel more emotionally connected to them (making it easier to like them).

I thought this was interesting, as I looked through these portraits, because I wonder if artists hundreds of years ago were somewhat aware of this. Possibly not aware about the psychological reasons of why the left side of a face might be attractive to the eye, but simple that it is attractive (and if they used this to their advantage in their art work).

Claude Monet, Springtime, 1872