Gateways to Art Chapter 1.7

Chapter 1.7

Scale and Proportion

PART 1FUNDAMENTALS

Copyright © 2011 Thames & Hudson

PART 1FUNDAMENTALS

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Chapter 1.7 Scale and Proportion

Scale

Artists make conscious choices about the scale of their work when they consider the message they want to put across

A small-scale work implies intimacy

Large-scale works communicate big ideas directed at a large audience

1.126 Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Mistos (Match Cover), 1992. Steel, aluminum, fiber-reinforced plastic, painted with polyurethane enamel, 68' x 33' x 43’4”. Collection La Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, Spain

1.127 Robert Lostutter, The Hummingbirds, 1981. Watercolor on paper, 1¾ x 5⅝”. Collection of Anne and Warren Weisberg

PART 1FUNDAMENTALS

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Chapter 1.7 Scale and Proportion

Hierarchical Scale

The deliberate use of relative size in a work of art, in order to communicate differences in importance

1.128 slide 1: Relief from the northern wall of the hypostyle hall at the great temple of Amun, 19 th Dynasty, c. 1295–1186 BCE.

Karnak, Egypt

1.128 slide 2: Hierarchical scale: Relief from the northern wall of the hypostyle hall at the great temple of Amun, 19th Dynasty, c. 1295–1186 BCE.

Karnak, Egypt

1.129 Jan van Eyck, Madonna in a Church, 1437–8. Oil on wood panel, 12⅝ x 5½”. Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany

PART 1FUNDAMENTALS

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Chapter 1.7 Scale and Proportion

Distorted Scale

An artist may deliberately distort scale to create an abnormal or supernatural effect

1.130 Dorothea Tanning, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1943. Oil on canvas, 16⅛ x 24”. Tate, London

PART 1FUNDAMENTALS

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Chapter 1.7 Scale and Proportion

Proportion

The relationships between the sizes of different parts of a work make up its proportions

PART 1FUNDAMENTALS

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Chapter 1.7 Scale and Proportion

Human Proportion

Carefully chosen proportion can make an art object seem pleasing to the eye

This goes for the human body, too

The ancient Egyptians used the palm of the hand as a unit of measurement

The ancient Greeks sought an ideal of beauty in the principle of proportion

The models used by the Greeks for calculating human proportion were later adopted by artists of ancient Rome, and then by Renaissance artists

PART 1FUNDAMENTALS

Chapter 1.7 Scale and Proportion

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

1.132 Ancient Egyptian system using the human hand as a standard unit of measurement

1.133 Nigerian Ife artist, Figure of Oni, early 14th–15th century. Brass with lead, 18⅜” high. National Museum, Ife, Nigeria

1.136 Poseidon (or Zeus), c. 460–450 BCE. Bronze, 6’10½” high. National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece

1.137 Diagram of proportional formulas used in the statue