The conservation process of a 1634 painting depicting the portrait of an aristocrat showed that Photoshop retouching was nothing new, whereas a 19th-century restorer would have taken the liberty of modifying the face to his liking.
“Do you think Kylie Jenner’s preference for fuller lips reflects a very modern beauty phenomenon? Think again!” According to The Guardian, the non-profit organization English Heritage wrote about X on Friday.
In the hands of a restorer, the portrait in question was said to have been altered somewhere between the 17th and 19th centuries to soften the facial features of noblewoman Diana Cecil by adding “fuller lips and a lower hairline,” the non-governmental organization reported.
Do you think Kylie Jenner’s preference for fuller lips reflects a very modern beauty phenomenon? Think again! 💄
After careful conservation, our experts discovered that a 19th-century restorer had given Diana Cecil the Hollywood treatment, including plumper lips and a lower hairline. 🎨 pic.twitter.com/DT5i2NskyZ
— English Heritage (@EnglishHeritage) November 24, 2023
The woman, who lived between 1596 and 1654, was the great-granddaughter of Willian Cecil, a close friend of Queen Elizabeth I, the British newspaper said.
But it was only by initiating the work’s conservation process that the collection’s restorer, Alice Tate-Harte, was surprised to discover the young woman’s true face beneath a yellowed layer of old varnish.
“To learn that Diana’s facial features had changed so much was certainly a surprise. Although the original reason for painting over may have been to cover damage […] The restaurateur certainly added his own preferences to “soften” his face,” she pointed out.
The painting, created in 1634 by the artist Cornelius Johnson, was able to find its own face and was to be presented on November 30th in the neoclassical Kenwood Villa in London.
“As a modern society with access to digital beauty filters and artificial intelligence, we may think we are more comfortable than usual with the temptation to ‘perfect’ our appearance, but it works.” […] has shown that this is not a new phenomenon,” concluded Louise Cooling, Curator of English Heritage at Kenwood.