Médecine et esthétique : nature de la beauté et beauté de la nature chez Galien

Once again on the Empress Zoe: Women, dermatology, cosmetics, and materia medica (medical matter) in the ancient world

“…Accordingly, the analysis of the outer appearance is, for Hippocratic medicine, one of the fundamental tools that can indicate inner harmony or disharmony, that is, disease. Therefore, although medicine and cosmetics are two quite separate conceptual fields, it is not uncommon to find indications for the preparation of creams and facial dyes even within treatises that contain therapeutic indications; this depends on the close link between physiology and aesthetics, whereby in the Greco‐Roman medical tradition natural beauty has a direct relationship with the good functioning of the body 1,2,3 . A pale face, tending to yellow or bruise, or marked by wrinkles, certainly indicates a beauty defect, but above all a break in the humoral balance (and therefore illness), poisoning, or the start of the aging process, which in ancient theories represented a move away from full health due to cooling and drying of the body.…”

“…Therefore, although medicine and cosmetics are two quite separate conceptual fields, it is not uncommon to find indications for the preparation of creams and facial dyes even within treatises that contain therapeutic indications; this depends on the close link between physiology and aesthetics, whereby in the Greco‐Roman medical tradition natural beauty has a direct relationship with the good functioning of the body. 1 , 2 , 3 A pale face, tending to yellow or bruise, or marked by wrinkles, certainly indicates a beauty defect, but above all a break in the humoral balance (and therefore illness), poisoning, or the start of the aging process, which in ancient theories represented a move away from full health due to cooling and drying of the body. The examination of the complexion and of the skin is, in fact, the first investigation carried out by the physician on the sick body: it is not by chance, for example, that in the treatises on women's diseases some generic cosmetic indications are mixed with more specific and therapeutic prescriptions, such as those for the elimination of the ascarids of the genitals and of the anus; or that colors used to beautify women's eyes also have a therapeutic power against eye diseases.…”