Scale and proportion in art are both concerned with size.
Scale refers to the size of an object (a whole) in relationship to another object (another whole). In art the size relationship between an object and the human body is significant. In experiencing the scale of an artwork we tend to compare its size to the size of our own bodies.
Proportion refers to the relative size of parts of a whole (elements within an object). We often think of proportions in terms of size relationships within the human body.
Michelangelo’s sculpture David represents the Renaissance emphasis on the ideal, based on the ancient Greek model of the ideal: reflected in the portrayal of perfection in the human body.
This image is an excellent illustration of both scale and proportion in art.
The scale of this overwhelming figure is larger than life: over 13 feet tall. In addition it is placed on a pedestal taller than the average human, so that the sculpture towers far above the viewer. This gives it a sense of godlike grandeur.
The proportions within the body are based on an ancient Greek mathematical system which is meant to define perfection in the human body.
Ironically, this powerful representation of perfection is based on the biblical story of David, a small, humble shepherd boy who defeated the giant Goliath with his slingshot.
The statue appears to show David after he has made the decision to fight Goliath but before the battle has actually taken place, a moment between conscious choice and action. His brow is drawn, his neck tense and the veins bulge out of his lowered right hand. The twist of his body effectively conveys to the viewer the feeling that he is in motion, an impression heightened with contrapposto.
Contrapposto is an Italian term that means counterpose. It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs.
The statue is a Renaissance interpretation of a common ancient Greek theme of the standing heroic male nude. In the High Renaissance, contrapposto poses were thought of as a distinctive feature of antique sculpture. This is typified in David, as the figure stands with one leg holding its full weight and the other leg forward. This classic pose causes the figure’s hips and shoulders to rest at opposing angles, giving a slight s-curve to the entire torso. The contrapposto is emphasized by the turn of the head to the left, and by the contrasting positions of the arms. Michelangelo’s David has become one of the most recognized works of Renaissance sculpture, a symbol of strength and youthful beauty.
It was the colossal size of the statue that impressed Michelangelo’s contemporaries. One contemporary described it as “certainly a miracle that of Michelangelo, to restore to life one who was dead,” and then listed all of the largest and most grand of the ancient statues that he had ever seen, concluding that Michelangelo’s work surpassed “all ancient and modern statues, whether Greek or Latin, that have ever existed.” The proportions of the David are atypical of Michelangelo’s work; the figure has an unusually large head and hands (particularly apparent in the right hand). These enlargements may be due to the fact that the statue was originally intended to be placed on the cathedral roofline, where the important parts of the sculpture may have been accentuated in order to be visible from below.
Spoon And Cherry Claes Oldenberg and Coosje van Bruggen
Spoonbridge and Cherry is an excellent example of scale in sculpture. It is a gigantic version of a spoon that you would use to eat an ice cream sundae. Such emphasis (using scale and color (the red cherry)) draws a lot of attention to this artwork, even from far away.
Located in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Spoonbridge and Cherry is an enormous sculpture. The top of the cherry is thirty feet from the ground and the spoon is more than fifty feet long. The sculpture sits in a small pond and the cherry is a fountain. Water exits the cherry from both ends of the black cherry stem. Sculpture weighs approximately 7000 lbs.
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen create sculptures of ordinary objects–a clothespin and a tube of lipstick, for example–in a monumental scale, which causes us to see these ordinary objects in a completely different way. The sculptures also become iconic representations of the specific cities they were designed for. Consider how the enormous scale Oldenburg/van Bruggen sculpture changes the meaning of and our relationship to ordinary objects and people. Van Bruggen says that artists who work in urban settings often think about objects in relation to things they see around them, like buildings and highways. Oldenburg says “I get very inspired when I eat, for some reason.”
Proportion in Art
Proportion is the relative size of parts within a whole. The human body is an effective example of the design principle.
Leonardo da Vinci Vitruvian Man (1487).
This famous drawing is based on the geometrically calculated ideal human proportions described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura. According to Vitruvius the human figure was the primary source of proportion used in Classical orders of architecture.
This detail of the face of Michelangelo’s David shows the geometrically calculated proportions described by Vitruvius, which Michelangelo used in all of his figural sculptures. It has come to represent the ideal of human proportions.
The Golden Ratio or Golden Mean
is used to define aesthetically pleasing proportions in art and architecture.The ratio is found in within all of the natural world; and is clearly illustrated in the spiral of a chambered nautilus.
The ratio is found in all proportions of the human body, from the hands and feet, to the face, to the body as a whole. The ratio has been analyzed in terms of what is considered beautiful in human faces and found that the more closely proportions of the face follow this ratio, the more beautiful it is considered to be.
The ratio has been used for centuries, by the ancient Egyptians in the pyramids, ancient civilizations in the construction of temples, Renaissance artists (who called it the Divine Proportion), and is still used to create a sense of beauty, harmony and balance in art.
Artz 363 