Proportion The relationship of one component (part) of a work of art to another.
Gustave Caillebotte, Paris: A Rainy Day, 1877
Proportion Proportion is the size of objects in relation to each other, or within a larger whole. This could be natural (e.g. a nose which fits onto a face the way you would expect it), Exaggerated or unrealistic (e.g. a nose that is vastly over or undersized), and idealized, in which parts have the kind of perfect proportion that you just don’t see occurring naturally. Vocabulary: Within: all’interno Larger whole: tutto più grande.
NATURAL Proportion is the principle of art that refers to relative size. Proportion is largely about the relationship of the size of one element when compared to another. When drawing or painting realistically, proportion is important. If the proportions are incorrect, then the resulting image will look less realistic or abstracted.
NATURAL •Caravaggio, Still Life with Fruit, ca. 1603
EMPHASIZING SPACE WITH PROPORTION •Pieter Brueghel, Hunters in the Snow, 1565
EMPHASIZING SPACE WITH PROPORTION •Gustave Caillebotte, Paris: A Rainy Day, 1877
EXAGGERATED Alternatively, artists can use proportion for effect. By manipulating proportion, the artist can make his/her subject seem strong, weak, funny, mysterious, etc. We can exaggerate proportions to emphasize a meaning or an element within the scene. For example, a caricature artist distorts proportion in order to create a stylized image of the subject.
EXAGGERATED
EXAGGERATED • Curiosity by Jeff Jordan
The principle of proportion is not limited to size. Elements such as color can be used in differing proportions to create emphasis
EXAGGERATED • René Magritte. Les Valeurs Personelles
• Fernando Botero, Dancing in Colombia, 1980 (MoMa)
Fernando Botero is a Colombian artist and probably one of the most famous artists alive right now. Changing perspective and proportion in art, Botero’s signature style includes very smooth and bold images of oversized people. He creates both painting and sculpture in this same stye.
• Gerardo Feldstein, All at this Link
https://mymodernmet.com/gerardo-feldstein-sculptures/
• Giacometti, Man Pointing, 1947
UNREALISTIC • Parmigianino, Madonna with the Long Neck, 1535-4
Parmigianino has distorted nature for his own artistic purposes, creating a typical Mannerist ” figura serpentinata”. Jesus is also extremely large for a baby, and he lies precariously on Mary's lap as if about to fall at any moment. The Madonna herself is of hardly human proportions—she is almost twice the size of the angels to her right.
UNREALISTIC Artists can change the actual proportion at any time. In this work by Michelangelo, he made Mary much larger than the body of Jesus. If Mary could stand up, she would be about nine feet tall! He did this so that she wouldn’t look crushed by the weight of the body. • The Pieta by Michelangelo 1497
IDEALIZED
Michelangelo's David: powerful in size; ideal in
Proportions of the human body as a reflection of cultural ideology
Leonard Da Vinci attempted to illustrate the ideal human proportions laid out by Vitruvius centuries before. He called this the “Vitruvian Man”. 1492
IDEALIZED For a millennia, artists have sought the most aesthetically pleasing way to arrange visual components in a composition. From two-dimensional artwork to architecture, artists look for proportions (ratios) that please the eye. One popular concept was discovered by the ancient Greek mathematician, Euclid. He called this ratio the Golden Mean (The ratio expressed in numbers: 1.6180:1). Vocabulary: Sought: hanno cercato Ratios: Rapporti Golden Mean: sezione aurea
Perfect Proportion: The Golden Ratio, the Golden Mean, or Fibonacci's Spiral
Is used by artist to make aesthetically peasing artworks. The golden ratio is found everywhere in nature and even in the human body
Video The golden ratio
GOLDEN RATIO IN NATURE
GOLDEN RATIO IN ARCHITECTURE
GOLDEN RATIO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM-IKpeU8H4
Proportion and Scale
Body proportion The basic rule of thumb is that the body is 7,5 or 8 times the size of the head.
Facial proportion