Anthropometrics and art in the aesthetics of women's faces

Abstract

Attractiveness of the face is not an abstract conception but a quantitatively well-defined anatomic quality. Harmony, disharmony, and disproportion of the face depend on the quality of the relationships between individual measurements of the craniofacial complex. The statistical expression of this relationship is the proportion index. A proportionate face, one with its proportion indices located within the normal range (mean +/- 2 SD), is healthy but not necessarily attractive. In an attractive face the proportion indices are in an optimal relationship, statistically in the range of mean +/- 1 SD. The existence of such a range ensures the great variability possible even among attractive faces. Disproportion, or even mild disharmony in a sensitive area of the face (orbits, nose, lips), reduces the aesthetic quality of the face. Restoration of harmony demands correction of the disproportionate relationships, which is achieved by appropriate changes in the measurements. Norms of measurements and proportion indices found in attractive faces serve as guides in calculating changes. Ethnic differences in North American Caucasian women proved not to be of major concern when planning aesthetic correction.