Many have written about the Marquardt Beauty Mask, applied it and tried to evaluate its validity. Unfortunately, we find that many who do so do not really understand the mask or how to use it. As one example, a lot of good effort went into creating an online version of the mask at the Interactive Mathematics page on “The Math Behind the Beauty.” It allows you to select a mask and then overlay it to photos of a number of famous people or upload your own photo.
However, Marquardt's mask is associated with numerous problems. The method used to examine goodness of fit with the proportions in the mask is faulty. The mask is ill-suited for non-European populations, especially sub-Saharan Africans and East Asians. The mask also appears to approximate the face shape of masculinized European women. Here's an example, courtesy of the Marquardt Beauty Mask: Source: Goldennumber More generally, photography provides another excellent example of mathematics hidden behind beautiful objects. Marquardt is a pioneering plastic surgeon whom currently researches human attractiveness after retiring from active surgical practice of 27 years. He produced the 'Beauty Mask' which uses the Golden Ratio (through Golden decagons, triangles, pentagons and line dissections): shown to the right.
We uploaded the Marquardt Beauty Mask to the Interactive Mathematics site and this is what we found. When the Marquardt mask (black lines) is aligned vertically to match the pupils of the eyes, the Interactive Math mask (magenta lines) is too long. When the Marquardt mask is aligned horizontally to match the line of the pupils and the center line of the mouth, the Interactive Math mask is too narrow. As a result, none of the photos evaluated on the Interactive Math site will provide an accurate analysis of beauty as defined by the Marquardt mask.
Click on the images for higher resolution version.
In another instance, a young adult male created a YouTube video showing the transformation of his face to conform to that of the Marquardt Beauty Mask. The morph animation was executed very nicely, but he morphed his face to conform to the female mask rather than the male mask. This produced a rather unnatural appearance.
We sincerely appreciate attention that the Marquardt Beauty Mask has received in both popular and academic settings, but caution you to not believe everything that others have to say about it or to go by the examples they provide. Instructions on the proper use of the Beauty Mask are found Repose Frontal Mask Application page.
By Blessmybag@blessmybag
I was drawn like lightning just a few moments ago to Michelle Phan’s FB plug on her post about the Golden Ratio of Beauty, not because I was desperate to find out what the Golden Ratio was (we’re deeper than that, right, Marianas Trench?), but because for history’s sake and for human reason I wanted to hear her thoughts on the matter.
The “Golden Ratio” refers to the idea of measuring beauty in relation to the number Pi. Phan posted a visual, using a geometric mask which was patented by Dr. Stephen R. Marquardt in 2001.
Dr. Marquardt, a retired surgeon who was also once Chief of Facial Imaging in UCLA, now focuses on research in human attractiveness in California and remains an active member of the Societies of Maxillofacial Surgeons. Here is what Marquardt’s patented mathematical mask looks like applied to a photo of Angelina Jolie’s face.
image source: http://www.everyoung.co.nz/
Face Analysis Test
Michelle Phan blogs according to research as defined by the Marquardt mask:
“In terms of facial beauty, here are the ratios that define “perfect beauty”:
- The ratio of the length of the face to its width is approximately 1.6. That means that the face is about 1.5 times longer than it is wide.
- The face is then divided into three sections: hairline to right in between the eyes, from between the eyes to the bottom of the nose, and from the bottom of the nose to the very bottom of the chin. The lengths of each of these segments should be about equal.
- Ear length should be equal to nose length, and the width of an eye should be equal to the distance between the eyes.” source link: http://www.michellephan.com/post/beauty-school-the-golden-ratio
In the corner of my heart I am originally a Michelle “PhanGirl” in spite of everything she isn’t or what people point her out to be, she got me started on beauty even before Lisa Eldridge even came into the picture for me. In my opinion physical beauty, while being a great gift, is secondary to who you really are and how you help shape your world in the fullness of your purpose for the Lord. Check out Michelle’s thoughts on the Golden Ratio here at her blog post.
Hold on a minute…whatcha doing with that ruler? LOL…