Well, since this thread is turning into a list of historical women famous for their looks, an interesting example is Phryne, a famous ancient Greek courtesan. The name meant Toad (I guess the Greeks were funny about epithets by our standards, like Hera being referred as cow-eyed in the Iliad) because she was kind of sallow but she became so rich she was able to fund the rebuilding of the walls of Thebes. And at her trial for profaning the Elusinian mysteries, she bared her breasts and was found not guilty.
The problem is that “today’s standards” are very atypical, historically. Looking at movies prior to, say, the late 60s, most women looked somewhat overweight and with very poor posture. Even Marilyn Monroe wouldn’t cut it today, without a whole lot of body sculpting.
What this means is that a hottie “by today’s standards” would not have been a hottie in the past, possibly even considered homely. So she’d be less likely to become a movie star or had her likeness preserved for posterity. She would have lived her life and died in anonymity.
As I understand it, Spartan woman were supposedly pretty hot. They were all into physical fitness and such so they were pretty toned. They also had more rights than most other greek woman so they probably ate a little better. Ironically, the men spent so much time together (a young boy at 13 or there abouts is paired with an older guy and they got it on) that when it came time for marriage it was tougher for them to adjust to sex with woman so they developed this ritual to help out. So maybe it was a bad thing they were so beautiful?
So yeah, I’m going with a Spartan woman and to provide a name, Helen of Troy. I’m sure there were others just as beautiful and not mythological, however.
In this case, probably in reaction to the inane sweeping generalization that everyone used to be homely.
That simply isn’t true. Look at any screen siren of the 1920s through the 1940s and you’ll see many slender beauties: Myrna Loy, Claudette Colbert, Veronica Lake, to name three among hundreds. Standards of beauty have been all over the map (and bathroom scale) all through history.
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Also untrue. Marilyn was not unusually zaftig by the standards of her day or ours, contrary to popular myth. And Anna Nicole Smith became a sex symbol in the 1990s at a size much larger than Marilyn (or Bettie Page, or Dorothy Lamour, for that matter) ever thought about attaining.
Lucky for us there’s more than one “Venus”, I find this one much more palatable 
and, she lives up to modern standars because you can see little bit of her butt showing because her garments are worn low (much like todays female fashion of wearing jeans that do not cover more than half the ass (I’m not complaining; this was just making an observation))
She actually reminds me much more Meskie Shibru (an israeli singer/actress).
The woman who modeled for the Willendorf Venus. She may be plump to our eyes, but she was a hottie by paleolithic standards.
And is Boxing Helena also your favorite movie?
Leonardo painted long before the 1800’s. This young lady is not obese.
I’ve been “watching” Anton Francesco degli Albizzi for years… At Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
Going back even farther… Zeus or Poseidon? Definitely a fine figure of a man.
Mary Magdalene?
Scarlett Johansson, anybody?
How about Hypatia of Alexandria? Not only was she smokin’ hot, she was acknowledged as a genius and one of the greatest minds of the ancient world.
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How about John Sargent’s Madame X, from 1884?
Then there’s Goya’s Dona Isabel de Porcel, dated 1806 or Portrait of Antonia Zárate, from 1805.
Then there’s Henri Fantin-Latour’s Charlotte Dubourg from 1882. The woman in the portrait is middle-aged, but you can tell that she was quite a beauty by today’s standards when she was younger.
Ann Pennington (actress) - Wikipedia Ziegfeld Folllies showcased wome from 1913 onward.
That was going to be my suggestion, too. Her face is stunning.
Also, whoever posed for this Roman statue must have been an attention-getter.
