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Beauty was a good thing. Beauty of the flesh, it was believed, indicated an inner beauty, a virtuous soul. This meant that beauty was celebrated for its divine purity, and to possess beauty was to own
a little bit of paradise. In portraiture, this is why men appear as heroic soldiers and women as classical goddesses and saints.
Courtiers were happy to promote this virtuous image of themselves in art, as part of a campaign of self-promotion that reinforced the idea that they were paragons of courtly Christian virtue in the flesh as well. Your Court portrait was testament to, and an advertisement for, your beauty and your virtue.
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