The beauty of the human body is intuitive, sensual, as well as hazy and mysterious. To this day we are still exploring the sources of beauty in the human body. The process of research and development of human aesthetics is also the process of progress of human social civilization and is closely related to the development of man himself.

Through the Timeline in BODY OF ART (p414-429), we can intuitively feel that “beauty” follows human civilization, and is expressed in different ways at different stages. Before 1000 BC, we are able to use simple colours like red, yellow and green to decorate these body paintings, even though archaeological findings of paintings and pottery were left on caves or rock walls. People always have some kind of life, some kind of sensory stimulation for some phenomenon, and then they start to think and explore. Gradually, around 200BC, the unique geographical and human environment of ancient Greece created a general concept of the human body and its overall proportions and beauty. At that time, people expressed their admiration for the beauty of the human body through human sculpture.

When the time came around 1000 AD, the aesthetics of the Middle Ages received a very profound influence from theology. People experienced the beauty of God through the beauty of sensual things. There was a high degree of overlap in values for theology and aesthetics. With the beginning of the Renaissance, the humanists’ theories about beauty enthusiastically celebrated the beauty of man himself and began to look for beauty in nature and science. The different forms of art at that time exquisitely showed the form, expression and posture of the human body, interpreting the harmony, elegance and balance of aesthetic thought.

With the development of technology and the change of people’s values, people are increasingly seeking to change parts of their bodies that they do not consider “good looking” through beauty, make-up, nail art, tattoos, cosmetic surgery, etc. But over-commercialization of cosmetic surgery has gradually unified the standard of “beauty”. While people try to beautify their bodies through cosmetic treatments, they actually stimulate the commercialization of their bodies and the publicization of their privacy.
I don’t think this is a wrong line of development; the aesthetics of the human body before the Renaissance was also interspersed with a lot of theological values; it was just some bifurcation in the course of people’s aesthetic development.