Gyroscopic motion

Cosmetics, Whiteness, and Fashioning Early Modern Englishness

“…Conversely, unlike the "deficiencies" of painting, the "civil" use of cosmetics is associated with the "cleanness of body," which is "ever esteemed to proceed from a due reverence, to God, to society, and to ourselves." 37 This second designation, which denotes the proper public use and display of the corporeal decorative arts, recalls the etymological root of cosmetic as deriving from kosmos and suggests that Bacon might consider cleansing agents such as tinctures and washes, rather than paints and fucuses, as material that can be used to visually create a harmonious, and beautiful, system. For Bacon, ornately decorated skin and sartorial excess invites chaos while the public display of the civilized body aids in the creation and maintenance of an ordered social cosmos.…”