“Beauty is that which pleases when seen, the perfect fusion of vision and joy” St. Thomas Aquinas declared this to those who asked him for its definition. We imagine that the doctor of the church was referring more to a transcendental vision than to mere matters of the sprawling world. However, beauty is a concept that can easily be transferred to more mundane matters, encompassing truly wide fields, from the body to art in its various expressions.
The concept of beauty has changed over the centuries, always following the fashions of the time. Medieval minstrels, for example, sang fanciful praises to the mademoiselles who conformed to the required standards. The blonde hair in Renaissance paintings was seen as a colour of purity; therefore, the Madonnas and the Angels depicted were blonde. In Ancient Greece, classic beauty was represented by the athlete, whose perfect body was comparable to that of a god. The Egyptians were the first to turn cosmetics into true art. The priests can be considered the first master perfumers, who propagated essences in the atriums of temples and perfumed the necks of queens and princesses, true weapons of seduction, then as now.
Adorning the body has always been considered a decorative element, especially by primitive peoples, with techniques that have been refined over time and always constituted. Even to this day, a significant example of how taking care of yourself or exalting the ego represents something to be achieved for yourself and the beholder, even at the cost of sacrifices and painful practices.
A remarkable contribution to the field of personal care is made by surgery. In fact, it was not so long ago that surgery, once seen only as a technique to treat organic pathologies of various kinds, was instead transformed into the possibility of improving the quality of life by correcting congenital malformations or devastating traumatic outcomes. This process created a valid specialisation at the end of the 19th century, plastic surgery. The name recalls the plasticity of the surgical options offered to treat a single case, often accompanied by a surgical series of interventions deferred in time to lead to a complete reconstruction.
The possibility of modifying the body by applying the techniques used in reconstructive surgery combined with the ones from aesthetic or cosmetic surgery has been a real starting point for solving cases in which people suffered from conditions they identified as malformations. For example, a humped nose, breasts that were too large or, on the contrary, too small, prominent ears, a bulging abdomen, skin laxity, and so on.
Aesthetic surgery is only one of the potential solutions that the vast landscape of anti-ageing techniques offers, with different options that involve surgery, which is sometimes complex and not immune to possible complications. Although today’s pharmacology allows us to feel well, obviating some of our ailments, the sensation that time is passing and that we no longer feel young can create a conflict that must carefully assess. However, it must be emphasised that surgery cannot always solve the problem, and it requires on the part of the surgeon a certain ability to penetrate the human psyche to assess the feasibility of an operation best.
Edited by Dr Edward R. Richard Battisti