Why did they never paint eyelashes in old portrait paintings?

Question

When you look at the eyes of really old portraits from lets say 1500 to 1800, its very rare to find eyelashes on the eyes, everyone has huge bulging eyes with no lashes, was it seen as a sign of beauty to not have them.

Answer 1

How many original paintings have you observed in person? You are incorrect in your assessment. Only Googling (using Google Images) 16th through 19th century portraiture will illustrate how far off your use of the word "rarely" is.



Of those that omit eyelashes it is a matter of priority when interpreting the greater picture. Eyelashes are such a fine detail that they have often been left out simply because they have been deemed unnecessary when considering the point of view of the targeted audience. If one were to stand in front of a live person at the distance depicted in a portrait the eyelashes would not be visible.



Depicting individual hairs of the eyelashes would not have been considered important until the emergence of photo-realism and hyper-realism of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Answer 2

women from this time period were thought more attractive the larger and wider the forehead. It was normal practice to pluck the hairline in order for the forehead to appear more pronounced. It weas also normal to remove eyelashes and eyebrows so all the attention would be focused on the forehead.

Answer 3

I suspect it was because eyelashes get sun and fade, there was no mascara in those days. I did a web search and couldn't find anything so this is just a guess.

Answer 4

It is very possible to merge with one of your own artistic creations. It doesn't necessarily have to be a painting or anything else that you have designed with your own hands. You could merge with a living tree or a carving in a cave or almost anything else. The connection is available, and you may feel your physical body become (almost invisible), in the/this known reality for a moment or longer. But to never return??? I don't know the answer to that. I would suppose there are doorways or gateways to alternative realities, and each of us will find/choose our own, in our own time. Interesting Q. Thank you.

Answer 5

I think eyelashes are nowadays seen as feminine and 'sexy' so they are accentuated and exaggerated further than what they are really like, when in past times perhaps they did not see eyelashes as feminine



or maybe they didn't have brushes small enough