Leonardo da Vinci and other Old Masters knew their stuff when it came to understanding beauty and passing it on to the next generation of artists, a study reveals.

A code created to guide their hands when trying to create a painting of perfect beauty has stood the test of time. Five of the six Neo-Classical criteria that Rennaissance artists followed in defining a beautiful face proved to be spot-on when tested against the eyes of male and female beholders looking at pictures.

Among the stipulations are that the width of the face must be four times the width of the nose, and the height of the forehead, length of the nose and height of the lower face must all be of equal length.

The only rule that turned out to be misleading was the nose-to-mouth ratio. Scientists found that a less full mouth was preferred in the Rennaissance criteria. In the study, the features were considered most attractive when mouth width was 1.6 times bigger than nose width. The code suggested 1.5 times bigger.

The veracity of the rules was tested by showing 36 volunteers pictures of 420 people, 32 of them celebrities. Meg Ryan came top, scoring 8.4 out of 10. Rock Hudson came second with 7.8, Keanu Reeves third with 7.3 and Greta Garbo lagged behind with 7. Four anonymous faces were also shown to the testers but scored less than the film stars.

The research by a team of biostatisticians from the University of Nebraska is published in the journal Pattern Recognition. The researchers found that “smaller chins in females are more attractive. Smaller noses, a larger distance between the eyes and smaller widths of the mouth are [also] desirable traits for females.

“For male faces, symmetry of the upper tips of the lips and symmetry of the nose is viewed as attractive. The face being divided into equal vertical thirds is an attractive trait in men.”

Men and women generally agreed on the criteria for overall attractiveness, but men tended to be more generous in the scores they gave.

Female faces were given higher ratings by both sexes, which suggests that feminine traits overall are viewed as more attractive than male.

A smaller width of the mouth was also found to be a desirable trait in women, a finding that contrasts with the “trout” lips favoured by the fashion business today.

The research team, perhaps offering hope to the majority who fail to conform to Neo-Classical canon, added: “While the results presented in this paper provide strong insights into the role that different aspects of face geometry play in attractiveness, this research can be extended in many different directions. Attractiveness is a complex aspect of a face and involves many other issues.”

Times Recommends

• In Margot Fonteyn's footsteps
• Forget beautiful people, let's have wonky Brits
• Fundamentalist brew: faith and power