ABSTRACT
The accumulation of wealth and the desirability of beauty emerged in the Middle Ages; hierarchy and leisure arose in the monarchical courts; artful display and fashion developed in the newly prosperous commercial centers. Beauty as the perfection of the physical form emerged with the rise of the middle class and modernity. Five lines of evidence suggest that the accumulation of personal wealth emerged as a value by the eleventh or twelfth century: the sin of pride, ascetic and heretical movements, legal property rights, luxury dress and the regulation of dress. The economic development that the Church facilitated made it possible to accumulate wealth and the refined symbols of wealth that demonstrate an awareness of beauty. Economic success and awareness of beauty, and in the religious realm spirituality and asceticism, were the first cultural values to which individuals aspired.
