Bellissima. Feminine beauty and the idea of Italy. - Stephen Gundle

Feminine beauty has been more discussed, appreciated, represented in art and associated with national, cultural identity in Italy than in any other country. From the time of Dante and Petrarch, ideals of beauty have informed the works of artists, including Botticelli, Leonardo and Titian. The modern connection between the country and beauty dates from the Grand Tour. In the early nineteenth century, the Romantics developed the stereotype of the dark, passionate, natural woman, which was subsequently appropriated as a symbol by Italian nationalists. Over the following century and a half, Radicals, monarchists, Catholics, Fascists, Communists and others all championed specific ideas about female beauty, seeking to use them to condition the national culture.