Male beauty past, present and future...

The opening scene of Ridley Scott's sequal to the 'Alien' franchise, 'Prometheus', was stunning. This mysterious beautiful creature appeared by this waterfall. His alabaster muscular body was weirdly erotic. The skin was pure white and the texture like an amphibian - translucent. He was a living sculpture. He was at once utterly alien, and yet profoundly familiar.

Where had I seen this face before, that both drew me toward it and yet repelled me?. As I pondered this, I realized that this beautiful creature was, and has been, a part of western culture for centuries. He is not a product of our future. He is a product of our past. He was an ideal long before Christ and seemingly an ideal of the future.

This classical Greek sculpture above has exactly the same face. The curve of the lip, the prominent chin, the strong brow and nose, and the white marble skin. This alien of our imagined future was man's ideal of male beauty in the distant past. This heroic image of man has traveled through the centuries. In the 20th century, this classical ideal found favor in Fascist Italy in its art (see below). Nazi Germany used this archetype to send a message of power in the creation of a Thousand Year Reich, like Rome.

In fashion during 1990's photographers like Herb Ritts and Bruce Weber, sort models whose bodies and faces alluded to this classical past. This image of man has the same timeless beauty that the Egyptian sculpture of Nefertitti still holds over an ideal female beauty today. High cheeks bones, sculpted brows, almond black lined eyes, firm jaw, straight nose, full red lips, and long neck.Think of the 1950's 'Look' and ideal's of beauty today in Vogue.

I discovered that Ridley Scott's  inspiration for this creature, known as the 'Engineer' in 'Prometheus', was derived from three main sources: Elvis Presley, Michelangelo's 'David' and The Statue of Liberty.

It is amazing to see the connection between these three elements and history. Yet, the faces are the same.The same ideal has been passed down the ages and into the future. In an age if cinematic technology many people thought this 'Engineer' was a product of a computer. In fact, this is a real man, not a 3d animation.


The images below show the process of becoming this strange beautiful creature that captured many an imagination. And, this is the man himself.

There is something erotic about this character and yet he is paradox. The 'engineer' is simultaneously new and yet a classical fixture of Western Art. When he appeared by that waterfall and disrobed in the opening scene I drew a breath of awe at the beauty he possessed. I was fascinated with this eternal 'look' he embodied. I must add this image transcends race, the skin is not skin, it was once marble, now made flesh. I think man has always sort out beauty, and once during the Greco-Roman period they found God, the Divine,  in the human form - man as God.

Peace.