I expected this video to awe me with the evolving ways in which women have been depicted in classical art, but to my admittedly very untrained eye, not much seems to have changed over half a millennium. As Jezebel points out, it’s just pretty white woman after pretty white woman here—aside from forehead proportions, not much seems to have changed. You can find a list of all the portraits included in the video here.
I’m sure for anyone with knowledge of art history there are a lot of important nuances I’m missing, but my takeaway from this three-minute refresher is that history’s most renowned artists were obviously dedicated to depicting some sort of shape-shifting, white-pretty-woman-Chimera. For 500 years of art featuring pieces by female artists and portraits of a more diverse group of subjects, this video is a great alternative.
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