The word "nobleman" in the era of Ancient Russia refers to a person in the service of the princely court. Subsequently, the nobility gradually became more and more influential, and under Peter the Great it finally turned into the main support of the throne.
The nobles, considering themselves to be a noble estate, strongly emphasized their difference from the common people, whether in clothing, manners, or tastes. They argued that even by facial features you can immediately distinguish a noble person from a simple peasant. Was it really so?
What was meant by the term "aristocratic face"
Some people have heard expressions: "aristocratic appearance, " "thoroughbred face." These concepts, for example, are often found on the pages of historical novels. But what do they mean?
Noble aristocrats, as already mentioned, were very proud of their chosenness and in every possible way distanced themselves from the people of the lower classes. Therefore, they entered into marriage only with representatives of their class.
There were only rare exceptions to this rule, for example, you can recall the love story of the noble aristocrat Count Sheremetev and the serf actress Kovaleva-Zhemchugova, his future wife.
And since, of course, there were much fewer noble people than noble ones, very many nobles were to each other to some degree of kinship, sometimes very close. In these cases, the probability of various genetic diseases in children sharply increases, leading to characteristic changes in appearance: fine features, pallor of the skin.
Judging by the surviving portraits of many representatives of the hereditary noble families of the 18th-19th centuries, as well as the beginning of the 20th century, they were characterized by such features as a thin nose, a sharp chin, thin lips and that notorious pale skin. It was such persons who were considered correct among the nobles.
