Art Appreciation - Formal Analysis of an artwork

1.7 Scale and Proportion Scale—whether monumental, human, miniature, hierarchical, or distorted— carries meaning and communicates a part of an artwork’s message. It also sets the tone for proportion: the size relationships between the various parts of a work. When proportion conforms to scale, all the parts of the work look the way we expect them to; they seem proper and harmonious. The Golden Section is a proportional ratio used by the ancient Greeks to create naturalistic forms and unified compositions and building designs. In other eras and cultures, the proportions of representations of human figures have reflected the values of the societies that produced them. Many African sculptures, for example, exaggerate the size of the head (1.7.9). Scale and proportion are basic to most works; size choices influence all the other elements and principles in the design.

TOPICS COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER:

• SCALE • PROPORTION