Exploring the physicality of personal beauty, anthropologists look at the physiognomy of faces, their shape and color, as well as the expressions on people’s faces. The remarkable beauty of Spanish women and men became a topic of special interest for many researchers and other observers. Scholars of the 19th century concluded that the unique features of Spanish faces and bodies evolved from the considerable mixing of many cultural and physical types of people who came to Spain in various periods of history.

Spanish men and women, like Italians, have had a long reputation as beautiful people among many Europeans. Scholars of the 19th century concluded that the evolutionary mixing of different physical types could be the reason why modern Spaniards are so attractive. Spanish personal beauty has evolved from the long history of cultural mixing.

The Evolutionary Origins of Spanish Beauty

Moors, Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Suevi, Gypsies, and Jews have migrated to Spain in different historical periods and for different reasons. People in those ancient civilizations had different types of human physicality. Sexual selection and intermarriage both contributed to the cultural evolution of Spanish physical beauty.

For example, the brunette type of Spanish appearance likely evolved from the physical traits of Arabs and Gypsies. Migrants from those cultures contributed to the formation of modern Spanish physical traits of Arabs and Gypsies. Migrants from those cultures contributed to the formation of modern Spanish women’s and men’s faces. Among those national features are dark skin tones, oval faces, glossy, dark hair, small mouths, white teeth, straight lines separating the nose and forehead, gracefully arched feet, and delicate extremities.

The Black Eyes and Long Black Eyelashes of Beautiful Spanish Women

The black eyes and long black eyelashes have become among the most distinctive features of Spanish women’s beauty. Many poets praised women’s eyes, describing their beautiful appearance. As an English playwright and poet, William Shakespeare, wrote, no author in the world “teaches such beauty as a woman’s eye.” (As cited in Henry Finck, 1887/2019, p. 516).

In this respect, Andalusian women are especially beautiful. Even ordinary travelers can become poetic when describing the Andalusian woman’s “black eye that mocks her coal-black veil.”

“Large and round are these eyes, like those of Oriental Houris; long and dense their black lashes, which yet cannot smother the mysterious fire and sparkle which their iris appears to have borrowed of the Gypsies. In many cases there is a vague, piquant indication of the almond-shaped palpebral aperture—one of the Semitic traits derived from the Phœnicians, Jews, and Saracens. And then, what woman can make such irresistibly fascinating use of her eyes as the Spanish brunette?”

(Henry Finck, 1887/2019, p. 517).

A French scientist and author from the 19th century, Louis Figuier, described the physical traits of the Spanish woman this way: 

“She is generally brunette, although the blonde type occurs much more frequently than is usually supposed. The Spanish woman is almost always small of stature. Who has not observed the large eyes, veiled by thick lashes, her delicate nose, and well-formed nostrils? Her form is always undulating and graceful; her limbs are round and beautifully moulded, and her extremities of incomparable delicacy. She is a charming mixture of vigour, languor, and grace.”

(As cited in Henry Finck, 1887/2019, p. 517).

A German author of the 19th century, Bogumil Goltz (1801-1870), wrote that

“The appearance of a Spanish woman is the expression of her character. Her fine figure, her majestic gait, her sonorous voice, her black, flashing eye, the liveliness of her gesticulations, in a word, her whole external personality indicates her character.”

(As cited in Henry Finck, 1887/2019, p. 517).

People from many countries commonly praise “Spain’s dark-glancing daughters.”