STYLE: GRANDES DAMES

The feminine ideal ever changeth. When women with sharp angles offend the eye, weight--not waif--becomes the object of desire. Then fashion cinches the corset or raises the hemline. Suddenly, thin is in and synonymous with beauty again. And women who set their worth in inverse proportion to their girth tread the slippery slope to Jenny Craig.

Yes, top fashion models wear sizes 2, 4 or 6. But the truth is, the average woman is 5-foot-4 and 145 pounds. In fact, half of all American women today wear size 14 or larger, subscriptions to Big Beautiful Woman (where I’m the executive editor) approach a quarter-million and sales of plus-size clothing have hit $12 billion a year. It’s comforting, too, that some medical research minimizes the health risks of moderate weight gains later in life. That could mean an extra 20 pounds might not be so bad after all.

So enough with the diets, the fasting, the low self-esteem. Women would do better to eat nutritionally, exercise regularly and take a hint from the world’s great artists, who have always appreciated the sensuality, intelligence and strength of a healthy woman, no matter what her dress size. Here, in re-creations of some of their paintings, no model is smaller than a size 16. Life can be grand.