On the 11,000 virgin martyrs, iconography, and beauty standards

The other week while wandering around the Cologne Cathedral (shout out to a legend) I came upon an extremely excellent altar in one of the side chapels. Built into its base were several perfectly identical reliquaries showing smiling, beautiful blonde women. I stopped to look at it, because, firstly I was absolutely amazing, and secondly it took me a second to realise what I was looking at. Have a look at her:

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