Marquardt Beauty Mask: The Mathematical Formula for Facial Attractiveness

The Marquardt mask represents the golden ratio imposed on the human face. Dr. Marquardt developed this mask to include one-dimensional and two-dimensional geometric elements formed by the golden ratio.

Marquardt Beauty Mask

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Despite the problems posed by the Marquardt mask, the geometric shapes used to make up the model do reflect facial symmetry. For patients suffering from a TMJ disorder, this has even greater significance. Because TMJ disorders are often the result of an underdeveloped mandible, this underdevelopment can result in functional and cosmetic problems, most notably asymmetry.

In 2001, Dr Stephen R. Marquardt, a surgeon in California, attempted to scientifically analyze the mathematics of perfect facial beauty. The result, although never published in a journal, was the patented Phi Mask.

It also works conversely, in that it generates feelings of insecurity and envy needing to be resolved. We can see that women typically react very differently to beauty magazines featuring their own sex than men do, for example.

Still think beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Think again. According to one expert, it's possible to figure out exactly what makes a "perfect" face. And you'll be surprised at how he rates some of today's hottest male and female TV stars.

After 27 years as a practicing oral and facial reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Stephen Marquardt used his professional experience, along with his studies in engineering, to build a patented mask that he believes defines the ideal face. It's based upon a mathematical construction that uses the ancient Greek ratio known as the Golden Mean, a proportion that for centuries has helped artists, architects and others create eye-pleasing forms.

Dr. Marquardt's initial interest in this field of study was inspired by his personal life, beginning at age 4 when his mother suffered a car accident. "She was disfigured," he says, "so I always thought about why, when someone's face changes, you perceive [that] the whole person changes." And then came his teen years: "In high school I was always interested in why I found some girls attractive and not others. All the guys in school were chasing the same three girls and they were the prettiest ones. I was fascinated with how the popular girls got everything, how others were drawn to them because of their beauty."

Finally, in 1992, after a breakthrough with the lips portion ("I almost gave up at that point," he remembers), he was able to get his beauty mask patented. Now, Dr. Marquardt devotes his time to speaking to groups about his lifelong work and to private facial analysis and consultations.

Well, according to De Silva, Heard rates highly on the "Golden Ratio test". This test rates a person's facial beauty based on how close their facial proportions are to the Golden Ratio. But is it really a formula for beauty?

Among those promoting the Golden Ratio as a beauty ideal is cosmetic surgeon Stephen R. Marquardt. In 2002, Marquardt claimed to have found the Golden Ratio determines beautiful facial proportions. For example, he claimed an ideal face would have a mouth φ times wider than the nose.

This white mask is a replica of the face of Nefertiti (ca. 1350 BC), the Royal wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, who was considered a remarkably beautiful woman. Noten created a Nefertiti-mask with tiny holes to inject either 'botox' of 'filler' in the face that hides behind the mask. The injected fluids will subsequently sculpt the face according to the rules of perfect beauty. In case the beautifying operation does not succeed, a golden suicide pill offers a last resort. (The design of the mask was based on the Marquardt Beauty Mask)

Additional techniques, including using symmetry and finding triangles in your field of vision, can also imbue your pictures with a beauty that others will recognize but have difficulty pinpointing the origin of.

While there are many exceptions to the math-beauty connection I've highlighted, as I hope you now better appreciate, mathematics and beauty are often interlinked, and I hope this article has given you a new lens with which to view your surroundings and find the hidden beauty.

Don't miss the beauty interactive.What has mathematics got to do with beauty? Actually, a lot. Physical attraction depends on ratio, and in particular symmetry. (See Facial attractiveness: evolutionary based research.)

This mask of the human face is based on the Golden Ratio. The proportions of the length of the nose, the position of the eyes and the length of the chin, are claimed to conform to some aspect of the Golden Ratio.

Choose a mask, depending on whether the person is smiling or not, and line up the mask with the photo by dragging the mask. You can re-size the mask by dragging the bottom right corner, or the handles.

Disclaimer: Of course, inner beauty is more important than external beauty...! Each person's perception of beauty is different, and it may or may not have anything to do with the ratios implied by the mask.

One question that has baffled people for centuries is what is beauty?, with some believing that beauty is skin deep and others asserting that if that were the case, the cosmetics industry would go broke.

However, there is also conflicting evidence regarding this correlation. The faces of professional models have not always been found to fit the golden proportion [8], and for patients undergoing orthognathic surgery, whilst most subjects were perceived as more attractive after the operation, the proportions were as likely to move towards or away from golden proportions [9]. Furthermore, studies assessing the prevalence of the golden proportion in the general population rather than just attractive faces [10] found that whole populations may indeed exhibit some facial ratios that are similar to golden proportions; therefore, this proportion may indeed be a facial ratio that many faces exhibit rather than a specific measurement that correlates with beauty.

Table 5 highlights the statistical comparison of each facial ratio between the best graded and least well-graded photographs with the aim to identify any statistical significant differences in the ratios, which may then correlate with facial beauty.

Previous investigations on facial aesthetics and the perception of beauty are extremely important; however, the subject requires modern evaluation due to the potential for changing perceptions over time. For example, female nudes from Renaissance art and sculpture would be considered potentially overweight by modern societal standards, but were appealing during their time, perhaps because a higher body mass was linked with wealth and high socioeconomic status.

These results of discordance of facial rations with the golden proportion agree with some relevant literature. In one study, Brazilian women were initially evaluated according to their facial attractiveness and then compared with the golden proportion, and no correlation was found between perception of beauty and the golden proportion [30]. A more recent study investigating the same topic conducted by Rossetti et al. [31] also concluded that the attractive female and male facial ratios did not correlate with the golden proportion. These results also agree with research conducted on European male and female facial proportions by Bashour [32]. Therefore, there appears to be modern research suggesting that the golden proportion cannot be applied in aesthetic facial surgery to provide consistency of results both in Caucasian and black populations.

Dr. Stephen Marquardt has studied human beauty for years in his practice of oral and maxillofacial surgery. Dr. Marquardt performed cross-cultural surveys on beauty and found that all groups had the same perceptions of facial beauty. He also analyzed the human face from ancient times to the modern day. Through his research, he discovered that beauty is not only related to phi, but can be defined for both genders and for all races, cultures and eras with the beauty mask which he developed and patented. This mask uses the pentagon and decagon as its foundation, which embody phi in all their dimensions. For more information and other examples, see his site at Marquardt Beauty Analysis.

To create a truly extraordinary result, one must first understand the science of beauty. Artists, painters, and sculptors dating back to ancient times clearly understood that there is a mathematical element to beauty. In fact, ancient Greeks contended that all beauty is in mathematics and that beauty is proportional in all things beautiful. Research suggests that there is only one mathematical relationship that is consistently and repeatedly reported to be present in beautiful things, both living and human-made, that being: the Golden Ratio or the Divine Proportion. The Golden Ratio is a mathematical ratio of 1.618:1, and the number 1.618 is called Phi, named after the Greek sculptor Phidias.

Incorporating the concept of Phi and the mathematics of beauty is a powerful way to enhance your consultations. This approach dramatically builds trust with patients and helps them to see more clearly areas in need of attention and the value of a comprehensive treatment plan.

If you've read the article title, you'll probably have a good idea. Beauty is often considered a relative term that varies between race, culture or historical concepts. Recent studies seem to show that our perception of physical beauty could be hardwired into our brains. 2ff7e9595c