Makeup | Performing Arts, Theatre & Film (2024)

makeup, in the performing arts, motion pictures, or television, any of the materials used by actors for cosmetic purposes and as an aid in taking on the appearance appropriate to the characters they play. (See also cosmetic.)

In the Greek and Roman theatre the actors’ use of masks precluded the need for makeup. In the religious plays of medieval Europe, actors playing God or Christ painted their faces white or sometimes gold, while the faces of angels were coloured bright red. During the Renaissance, popular characters in French farce wore false beards of lamb’s wool and whitened their faces with flour. It is known that on the stage of Elizabethan England, actors playing ghosts and murderers powdered their faces with chalk and that those appearing as blacks and Moors were blackened with soot or burnt cork. Little attempt was made to achieve historical accuracy in either makeup or costuming until early in the 19th century.

Early stage lighting, provided first by candles and later by oil lamps, was dim and ineffectual; consequently, crudity in makeup passed unnoticed. With the introduction of gas, limelights, and, finally, electric lights into the theatre came the need for new makeup materials and more skillful techniques of application. Crude, inartistic effects could not be hidden under the revealing light of electricity. A solution was found with the use of stick greasepaint, invented in the 1860s in Germany by Ludwig Leichner, a Wagnerian opera singer. By 1890 the demand for stage makeup had warranted its manufacture on a commercial scale. Half a century later, greasepaint in stick form had given way to more easily handled creams, though greasepaint’s superior qualities in colour blending were still prized.

On the modern stage, makeup is a necessity because powerful stage-lighting systems may remove all colour from a performer’s complexion and will eliminate shadows and lines. Makeup restores this colour and defines the facial features to ensure a natural appearance. It also helps the player to look and feel the part, a consideration especially helpful in character interpretations. A theatrical makeup kit typically includes makeup base colours, rouges, coloured liners for shadow and highlighting effects, eye makeup and false eyelashes, various cleansers, powder and powder puffs, putties for making prosthetic features, adhesives, wigs, and facial hairpieces or mohair to construct them. Latex may be worked onto the skin to create the illusion of aging or deformity. The art of stage makeup has become so complex that most theatrical companies employ a professional makeup artist who creates and applies makeup suitable to the actors’ various roles.

Stage makeup proved to be wholly unsatisfactory for the motion-picture medium. Necessarily heavy applications made it impossible to appear natural in close-ups, and the range of colours developed for theatre failed to meet the quite different requirements of motion-picture lighting and film emulsions.

The first makeup designed expressly for motion pictures was created by Max Factor in 1910. It was a light, semiliquid greasepaint available in jars in a precisely graduated range of tan tone, suitable for the lighting and orthochromatic film emulsion used during that period.

The introduction of panchromatic film and incandescent lighting on movie sets eventually made it possible to standardize the film, lighting, and colours of makeup that were most effective for motion pictures. The Society of Motion Picture Engineers conducted a special series of tests for this purpose in 1928. As a result of these experiments, Max Factor created a completely new range of makeup colours called panchromatic makeup, an achievement for which he won a special Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award.

Motion-picture makeup is both corrective and creative. Makeup must always be applied skillfully, delicately, and subtly so that facial expression will have natural freedom. On the screen, particularly in close-ups, the face may be magnified many times larger than life size, so that every complexion flaw or crudely applied makeup artifice is clearly discernible. As a corrective art, makeup serves to (1) cover blemishes, (2) provide the face with a smooth and even colour tone for the most effective photography, (3) clearly define the facial features for more visibly expressive action, (4) make the player appear more attractive, and (5) ensure a uniform appearance before the camera. As a creative art, makeup enables the player to take on the appearance of almost any type of character. It can make the young appear to age believably and the old appear to look young again. Special makeup devices can supply the performer with any desired facial feature, from the weird effects of science fiction and horror movies to the bruises, wounds, and scars of western and war films.

The introduction of colour to motion pictures created new makeup problems. Various colour films caused existing greasepaint used on players’ faces to appear yellowish or red and blue on the screen. After some experimentation, a solution was found with a successful solid (Pan-Cake) makeup that was applied with a moist sponge. Makeup charts indicated the correct colours to use for each type of colour film.

The arrival of television created new makeup problems. Light complexions looked ghostly, and dark complexions dirty. Street makeup on women either disappeared or looked dark or dowdy. Some of the colour makeup mixtures that had been developed for motion-picture makeup proved satisfactory, but others had to be modified. New problems arose when colour television came into use. A green dress might appear blue on a colour television screen and no harm was done; but a face that under lights looked natural to the human eye might be televised as green. At length, a range of television makeup shades was developed that would televise naturally on black-and-white as well as colour transmissions.