A template for human beauty is found in phi, the pentagon and dodecagon
Dr. Stephen R. Marquardt is the world’s most recognized expert on facial analysis and beauty. He has appeared in many documentaries and been referenced in countless articles, including the Beauty episode of BBC’s 2001 documentary “The Face.” Dr. Marquardt, also CEO of Marquardt Aesthetic Imaging, has studied human beauty for decades in his practice of oral and maxillofacial surgery, and now continues his studies full time.
His work includes cross-cultural surveys on beauty, in which he 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. Both of these geometric shapes embody phi in all their dimensions. For a more complete treatment and understanding of the scope of his work information see his site at Marquardt Beauty Analysis. On that site you will see the evolution and connection of the phi-based geometry of the pentagon and dodecagon to the archetypal human face of his Marquardt Beauty Mask, as illustrated in concept below:
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You will also see his application of the Marquardt Beauty Mask to show the universality of our perceptions of human facial beauty across all eras of history, cultures and ethnicity, as highlighted in the examples below:
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| Asian | Black | Caucasian |
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| 1350 B.C. Egypt | 500 B.C. Greece |
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| 164 A.D. Rome | 1794 A.D. |
Dr. Marquardt has another section of his site that explores face variations by age, sex and ethnic group. Here he observes that “Each archetypal mask appears to be a species non-ethnic configuration. That is the more a face, any face, looks like the mask, the more attractive it is to all humans. However no face, even the most attractive/beautiful face, exactly correlates with or matches (i.e.- exactly fits) the Mask. We are all a variation of the mask. Some of us vary only a little and some vary a lot – but most of us are somewhere between.”
A digital application of the Marquardt Beauty Mask
Dr. Marquardt of course used the concepts he discovered and perfected to achieve successful results in surgeries on his many patients during his years practice. An independent researcher and graphic artist, who calls himself “The Photoshop Surgeon,” applied Dr. Marquardt’s mask in Photoshop to demonstrate its incredible ability to transform an already attractive face into one of exquisitely striking beauty. Click on the image below to watch this independently-created Youtube video showing the Marquardt Beauty Mask being applied in Photoshop with amazing results. The illustration below shows the the before and after images, with the alignment to the Marquardt Beauty Mask as the guide for the transformation in the center:
Explore the Marquardt Beauty Mask on your own
Details on applying the Marquardt Beauty Mask to your own photo can be found at “You and the Mask” page of his site. This includes male and female versions of the mask, frontal and lateral versions, in both smiling and repose (non-smiling) position. You can download the frontal and lateral repose versions of the female mask below. Click on image for full size version.
Note: The Marquardt Beauty Mask illustrations above are copyright 2001 by Dr. Stephen Marquardt at Marquardt Beauty Analysis and are used by permission.
I’d like to thank Dr. Marquardt for his extensive research in this area, and for allowing it to be shared in summary format here so that viewers of this site can be aware of his landmark work and visit his site to learn more about its background, concepts and application, as well as his mission for his work in this field.
Click below to see an excerpt from the BBC documentary on “The Face” featuring Dr. Marquardt at the 2:02 mark:
