He requires that
the hair should be thick, long, and locky; the forehead serene, and
twice as broad as high; the skin bright and clear (candida), but not of
a dead white (bianchezza); the eyebrows dark, silky, most strongly
marked in the middle, and shading off towards the ears and the nose;
the white of the eye faintly touched with blue, the iris not actually
black, though all the poets praise 'occhi neri' as a gift of Venus,
despite that even goddesses were known for their eyes of heavenly blue,
and that soft, joyous, brown eyes were admired by everybody. The eye
itself should be large and full and brought well forward; the lids
white, and marked with almost invisible tiny red veins; the lashes
neither too long, nor too thick, nor too dark. The hollow round the eye
should have the same color as the cheek. The ear, neither too large nor
too small, firmly and neatly fitted on, should show a stronger color in
the winding than in the even parts, with an edge of the transparent
ruddiness of the pomegranate. The temples must be white and even, and
for the most perfect beauty ought not to be too narrow. The red should
grow deeper as the cheek gets rounder. The nose, which chiefly
determines the value of the profile, must recede gently and uniformly
in the direction of the eyes; where the cartilage ceases, there may be
a slight elevation, but not so marked as to make the nose aquiline,
which is not pleasing in women; the lower part must be less strongly
colored than the ears, but not of a chilly whiteness, and the middle
partition above the lips lightly tinted with red.
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