The Most Beautiful Woman of All Time?

* Simonetta Vespucci (c. 1453 – 1476)

You may not have heard her name before (although if you are an American, you live on a continent named after one of her in-law relatives, Amerigo), but you have seen her face.

That’s right: the face that Sandro Botticelli envisaged for his Spring and for Venus, as well as for his Virgin Mary images, is the face of his beloved – by then long dead – Simonetta. (Some art historians are violently opposed to this theory; but there is no denying that the structure of the face does correspond to known portraits of hers. )

“La bella Simonetta” died at the age of twenty-one, possibly of tuberculosis, leaving behind a myriad inconsolable admirers, among them both the Medicis, Lorenzo and Giuliano.

* Natalia Pushkina, nee Goncharova (1812 – 1863)

The wife of Russia’s most revered poet, Alexander Pushkin (who died in 1837, having been mortally wounded in a duel over his lovely wife’s honor), was “not merely fetching, but stunningly, blindingly beautiful, endowed with a power that was given, not made/earned”, says author David M. Bethea, and “amazingly, devastatingly, ravagingly attractive”, according to Prince Vyazemsky who actually met her.

What more is there to say?

* Lillie Langtry (1853 – 1929)

Called »the most beautiful woman in the world« by John Everett Millais, who painted her famed portrait, A Jersey Lilly, and many others after him, Lillie made a glorious career of her beauty. Preeminent among her countless admirers was Edward VII of the United Kingdom (who was also the father of her child).

And she caused quite a stir on the other side of the Atlantic, too. About her life in America, see this interesting article.

* Lillian Russell (1860 – 1922)

Here is one beauty that is guaranteed to take your breath away, even now – and even overweight as she was at certain points of her life.

Not only was Lillian – one of the most famous entertainers of her time (you can hear her sing here) – reputed to have the »most beautiful features in the world«, she was also famous for keeping her »youthful« looks for much longer than people thought was »normal«. (Here is Lillian at age 43.) The observation, made in 1915, by a certain reporter, that she was »not youthful anymore« says it all, really: she was 54 years old at the time.

And by the way, Lillian, the daughter of a sufragette, was also a well-known promoter of women’s rights herself. Here is a 1914 interview with her.

* Lina Cavalieri (1874 – 1944)

This comely Italian girl, orphaned from both parents at the tender age of fifteen, was first promoted as “the opera’s greatest beauty” and then ascended the Olympus of beauty as “the most beautiful woman in the world”. During WW II, when she was almost seventy, she worked as a volunteer nurse. She died, along with her husband, in an air raid that destroyed their house.

* Alma Mahler (1879 – 1964)

One of the most influential and talented “muses” of all times, Alma Mahler was once celebrated as “the most beautiful girl in Vienna”. She certainly was irresistible to many men, including some of the greatest luminaries of 20th century music, art, architecture and literature, including Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel, who became her first, second and third husband, respectively.

* Cléo de Mérode (1875 – 1966)

A true aristocrat and a dancer, lovely Cléo, famous for her tiny waist (in an era when waists were generally tiny), was hailed as “the most beautiful woman in France”, depicted by famous artists, and hotly pursued by many men, including the elderly Belgian king Leopold.

With the advent of cinema, female beauty became more conspicuous an asset than ever. There are and were many astonishing beauties in cinema – but only one boasts the “official” recognition of her unsurpassed beauty:

* Greta Garbo (1905 – 1990)

This enigmatic beauty and fine performer, the epitome of a film star, once featured in the Guinness Book of Records as “the most beautiful woman that ever lived”.

’nuff said.

With the proliferation of media outlets, especially newspapers (and even more specifically, tabloids), titles such as “the most beautiful” became much more popular – and accordingly devalued. There were and are many candidates to the title of “most beautiful”, and many polls that reflect the variety of the popular aesthetic judgement. Here are just two of the more recent surveys.

* The “most naturally beautiful person” (by popular choice): Sofia Loren.

And by the way… fair Sofia was scheduled to appear in the world-famous Pirelli calendar for 2007 even before the online poll. She has also never had plastic surgery. And by the way, she credits her beauty’s longevity to… pasta.

* The “most naturally beautiful woman of all time”: Audrey Hepburn.

The beloved gamine beauty was judged by a “panel of experts” to be the most naturally beautiful woman EVER (how did they verify this latter part is beyond me).

It remains true, however, that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

And it is also true – witness quite a few of the beauties above – that inner beauty matters, too.