'A Gaze Across Time' - Episode 1 [Director Song Sang-hoon's Beauty Essay]

Hello.

I am Song Sang-hoon, the head director of Goldendiamant Plastic Surgery.^^

To allow more people to enjoy the beauty essay that has been serialized on the Goldendiamant Cafe since this month,

I will also be serializing it here on the official Goldendiamant Plastic Surgery blog.

Please enjoy reading it as a relaxing break.^^

[A Gaze Across Time (Episode 1)]

Renaissance Venus “Simonetta Vespucci”

‘Crossing time’ signifies moving ‘beyond’ time, from past to present or present to past, transcending eras. It implies the imaginative notion that the gaze of a figure in classical painting has reached us today, and the regressive meaning that today’s gaze returns to the past to re-examine and interpret that figure.

Therefore, my beauty essay, 'A Gaze Across Time,' carries a very poetic and philosophical meaning. It will interpret, from a plastic surgery perspective, the meeting point where the gaze of women in classical paintings and the gaze of modern people intersect across time. It will continue as an intellectual and artistic exploration not merely of 'facial restoration,' but of beauty standards, facial structure, aesthetics, temporality, and the ideal human form.

Portrait of a Young Woman, 1475 - Städel Museum, Germany / Simonetta Vespucci, Modern Reinterpretation

Simonetta Vespucci (1453 – 1476) was an Italian noblewoman who lived in Florence during the Renaissance. Her beauty and captivating presence had a significant impact on art and culture. Her beauty is remembered as eternal in Botticelli’s works. People of her time even called her ‘the living Venus’.

Simonetta died young at the age of 22 from tuberculosis. Her early death, however, transformed her into a legendary and mythical figure, making her a symbol of art, poetry, and idealized femininity. Many painters and poets commemorated and praised her. Botticelli continued to paint her image repeatedly for more than 10 years after her death.

He depicted her not merely as a beautiful woman, but as a symbol of divine and pure beauty, influenced by Platonic love and Neoplatonic philosophy. In his later years, Botticelli willed to be buried next to Simonetta, and he was indeed interred near her tomb.

Simonetta was not just a beautiful woman; she embodied the ideal human form and beauty of the Renaissance era. Artists of her time sought to express mythical goddesses, virtue, beauty, and purity through her image.

In Botticelli’s original painting, in the Renaissance style, her nose is smooth but pointed, with a somewhat long aquiline shape, and her lips are thin and appear faded.

Her eyes are simple, and the color of her eyelashes and skin is monotonously plain. Her jawline is soft but lacks the beauty of a rounded curve, giving her a sharp impression.

Simonetta’s face, with its almost expressionless and static feel, can only be seen as an idealized beauty characteristic of the Renaissance.

However, the modern version of Simonetta on the right has been remodeled with a shorter, more prominent nose.

The bridge of her nose is sleek and naturally refined, giving the impression of a non-incisional tip rhinoplasty.

Her lips have been volumized and colored a natural pink through lip correction, making her lip line very distinct.

It looks almost like a filler effect.

Her eyes possess a vibrant beauty.

Her eyelashes are long and curled, her eyeliner is delicately expressed,

and her double eyelid line is clear.

Is it due to the eyeshadow effect?

Perhaps that’s why her eyes appear larger and more defined.

(Eyelid correction or makeup effect) Her evenly toned-up skin looks fair and radiant, as if she’s had skincare, and appears lively with blush and highlighter effects.

And her jawline is well-defined in a V-shape, making her chin and cheekbone lines appear sharper, almost like the effect of facial contouring surgery.

Her face has been transformed to look ‘naturally enhanced’ according to modern beauty standards,

with key changes in her eyes, nose, lips, skin tone, and jawline, resulting in an overall more sophisticated and vibrant impression.

The two paintings, classical and modern, facing each other, go beyond simple changes in appearance, compactly visualizing the differences in the perception of ‘beauty’ across eras and the evolution of how we see.

Even across a time gap of 500 years, humanity’s gaze and desire for beauty remain similar.

The way ideals of beauty change: if Renaissance beauty was closer to mythical and archetypal ideals,

modern beauty is based on personal, vivid, and realistic beauty.

Our gaze is always bound by time.

People of Simonetta’s time might have felt ‘perfection’ when they saw her, but today we consider it ‘unrealistic’.

However, the modern version of the woman is interpreted through contemporary aesthetic codes, making her feel more familiar.

The expansion of our gaze through medicine and technology is a meta-gaze that ‘views the past through modern eyes’.

It’s like ‘a woman crossing the river of time and being reborn with a different beauty’;

this is the essence of ‘A Gaze Across Time’.

Beauty is never a fixed concept.

It’s not about simple changes in appearance;

it’s about the fact that beauty is a story constructed by the gaze of its era. The face we see is not just a face, but a cultural portrait created by time.

(Song Sang-hoon, Director of Goldendiamant Plastic Surgery) June 12, 2025

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