In the 20th century, westerners were reprimanded for not showing their teeth: sexy and attractive.

During the period of 1948, the World Mental Health Organization designated the birthday of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, as "World Smile Day". People celebrate the act of smiling on May 8 and use this cheerful expression to promote the harmony between people and society.

Smiling is very common in modern daily life, and it will appear in almost all advertisements. However, few people know that it was not until the 20th century that human society generally regarded smile as a positive and healthy expression. Before that, smiling was a sign of stupidity, frivolity, vulgarity and illiteracy. If you are a decent person with a certain social status, you'd better not laugh.

Just two years before the French Revolution, 1787, the French neoclassical female painter Elizabeth Vijay lebrun exhibited a self-portrait in a Paris salon. The color of the oil painting is solemn, and the female painter in the painting is holding her young daughter, with elegant posture, bright eyes and serene expression. Like the Madonna in religious works, the difference is that the female painter's mouth is raised, her lips are slightly open and her teeth are clearly visible. However, it is this advertising smile that can be seen everywhere in modern society that angered the art critics at that time.

Critics believe that as a respected woman, lebrun's public display of smiling faces is against her identity and immoral. However, lebrun did not waver because of external evaluation. In the same year, she painted portraits of Marquise Hu Jie and Marquise Petzai (Part I) and the self-portrait exhibited again in 1790 (Part II). All the characters were grinning.

Then, lebrun's smile set off a "smile revolution" in Paris. With lebrun as the pioneer, a number of portraits of women with status and smiles emerged during the French Revolution.

Jacques-Louis David, a famous painter who painted "death of marat", added a grin to his wife in lebrun when he painted the portrait of "Madam des é riziat" in 1795.

If you smile, why do you need lips?

Elizabeth Vijai lebrun was very active during the French Revolution. She was the queen of Louis XVI (Marie-Marie-Antoinette) at 1778 (upper left), 1783 (upper right), 1787 (lower left) and 1788 (lower right). But truly noble people are often expressionless, just like Queen Antoinette. Not only do you have to laugh without showing your teeth, but you can't laugh without showing your teeth.

1703, St. Jean-batiste de La Salle, a French priest, educator, reformer and founder of La Salle, a Catholic organization, said in his book Code of Etiquette and Self-cultivation of Christians: "Some people hold their upper lip too high and their lower lip too deep to show their teeth. It's against etiquette. Etiquette rules require people not to show their teeth, which is all the reason why nature gives us lips: cover our teeth. 」

Since17th century, laughter has become a symbol of social class status in western European society. Whether in painting or in life, only the poor, lecherous, drunkards, people with immature intelligence and actors have the "privilege" to laugh.

Western European society has long noticed the role of laughter in social communication. Just like language use, whether to laugh or not is of great significance for dividing social classes. ErnestSackvilleTurner, a British writer, published his book "What the Butler Seen: The Service in Two Hundred and Fifty-five Years" at 1963. When describing the relationship between master and servant from18th century to 1980s, the book emphasizes the role of laughter: at that time, the social atmosphere encouraged young ladies to show humanistic care for their servants, allowed them to take regular vacations, and taught them to read and write, but did not encourage them to establish too close relationships, so we should try to avoid such things as smiles between master and servant.

In the18th century, maids were generally forbidden to praise the ladies or young ladies they served, especially the shape and health of their teeth. The direct reason is that this kind of praise will encourage the vanity of the wife and wife, and the deeper reason is that this kind of praise will increase the intimacy of the master and servant, which is the performance of the servant's deviance. In view of the fact that "politeness is no less than Shu Ren", it is obviously easier to establish a social norm of not smiling among people with status.

Don't laugh, be serious.

In the novel NicholasNickleby written by Dickens from 1838 to 1839, the female painter MissLaCreevy said, "In fact, there are only two ways to express portraits: seriousness and smirk. When a painter paints a portrait of a professional rather than an actor, he adopts a serious style; For those gentlemen and ladies who don't care if they look smart, they just fake smiles. Dickens' original wording used the word "*** irk"-it means both a smirk and a smirk. Poker face may look heartless, but it does look smarter than those unpredictable smiles.

People are like this, and so are photos. Photographer AlexanderGardner took portraits of American President abraham lincoln at 1863 (right) and 1865 (left) respectively. Serious Lincoln really looks more energetic and smarter than when he smiles.

Most people who hire painters to paint portraits have a certain social status. Even if they laugh more humanely and excitedly, they are not willing to violate social customs and be criticized. More importantly, it is difficult to keep smiling for a long time in the process of painting. If you keep smiling for hundreds of years, it usually looks fake and stiff, and the result is usually counterproductive. It's best not to laugh.

For creators, smiles are even more difficult to capture and express. Even if the strokes are vivid and the characters are vivid, they usually get into trouble because of bad words. The famous Italian painter Caravaggio once created a painting called "Cup with Horn" from 1602 to 1603. The childhood cup in the painting smiled naively, but at that time it was interpreted as a kind of child pornography, a temptation to child molesters, which led Caravaggio to fall into a pedophile scandal.

Before the "Smile Revolution", lebrun, a female painter, also painted an oil painting depicting Dionysus's sacrifice to Baxiang, which was the first grin of lebrun. 1785 was drowned in the critic's saliva as soon as it was written. The priestess blushed and grinned under the influence of alcohol, which showed the magic of wine, but it was also criticized by French critics in the18th century for showing strong sexual attraction.

The smile of fictional characters is still interpreted by the public, not to mention that the objects in the painting are real and noble characters.

Sweet tooth decay makes everyone equal.

People with status care more about their image than ordinary people. But in the face of dental caries, everyone is equal. Smiling means showing decayed teeth and yellow teeth, so people in paintings often choose to shut up.

Arnold Helen, a German historian, discussed Europe in the18th century in his book A Historical Guide to the Political System of Europe and its Colonies. He said: "Since various products of the colonies, especially coffee, sugar and tea, entered the daily consumption of Europe, the importance of the colonies has increased day by day. In the whole commercial system of the colonies, the above-mentioned commodities have had an inestimable impact on the reshaping of political and social life. Regardless of the huge gains made by the country from commercial trade and taxation, what influence has not been exerted by cafes in European countries as the main places to deal with politics, commerce and literature? In other words, without these goods, it is difficult for western European countries to have their current characteristics. 」

/kloc-in the 0/8th century, desserts, coffee, afternoon tea and cocoa products have spread from top to bottom and become daily consumer goods in western Europe. However, oral hygiene awareness has not kept pace with the promotion of these consumer goods. Tooth stains and tooth decay will not forgive people because of their noble status. Because these people with status are richer and easier to get the above goods, the probability of suffering from oral diseases is higher.

Antoinette, who never smiles in lebrun's paintings, is an example. Austrian princesses like sweets. After the French Revolution, when 1793 was sent to the guillotine because she lost the opportunity to seek the help of a dentist, all her teeth were gone, which explained from one angle why the Queen's expression in Antoinette's cartoon was a little strange at that time.

The same thing happened to American President George Washington. From 1770 to 1790, the appearance of Washington's portrait has changed greatly. The situation of 20 years makes people old, but it is more likely that 1790 Washington lost all his teeth, which makes his portrait show a sense of banter like a toothless old lady.

In France in the18th century, dentists were in the leading position in the world in both theoretical level and practical ability. PierreFauchard is regarded as the founder of modern dentists, and Fauchard published LeChirurgienDentiste in 1728, which comprehensively expounded the practical problems of dentists. French dentists have realized that in the face of dental caries patients, what they should do is not to expect all their teeth to rot, but to replace those bad teeth in time.

Other places, such as the United States, are still keen to collect children's healthy teeth and provide exquisite dentures for the rich with decaying teeth. Neither high-level dentists nor high-level dentures can liberate the stiff facial expressions of people at that time, and the missing teeth and dentures are not suitable for today's portraits. This is why in the18th century, describing the healthy teeth of young ladies and wives can also be a compliment. A good tooth is really precious.

Elizabeth Vijay lebrun, a female painter, is one of the few women with commendable status. She and her bright smile caused a brief smile during the French Revolution. However, with the arrival of the terrorist policy, people from all walks of life in France can't smile when facing the grim reality. The "smile revolution" soon died, and it was not until the twentieth century that smiles were widely advocated in the West. Perhaps it is precisely because of the twists and turns of human smile that this expression is particularly sincere and precious.