ABSTRACT
The introduction provides a historiographical and historical overview of the beauty of the human body in Western European art history and cultural theory, its ideals as well as the practices to achieve them. Tracing concepts of physical beauty of men and women from antiquity to Renaissance art theory and art historiography, it also gives an overview of the relation of art and nature with regard to concepts of imitation in art and art theory. In terms of the intersection of art and life, beauty is a goal that points beyond nature, but which, mediated by artistic images of the body, can at the same time have an effect on the natural body. The temporal focus is the early modern period, as the cosmetic transformation of the body was then increasingly associated with conceptions of the artistic image and work process.
