Universal Principles of Art

39 HIERARCHICAL PROPORTION

THE IMPORTANCE OF RELATIVE SIZE

Hierarchical proportion is a convention in representational art in which figures are scaled relative to their importance or social status. Thus, in Egyptian art, pharaohs are generally shown as larger figures than their surrounding attendants. This convention extended for millennia across much of the world’s art, including Mayan, Persian, Indian, Carolingian, and Gothic art. Even in the Sienese painting of Duccio (1255–1319), the central religious figures in compositions are painted on a larger scale than the lower status attendants. This convention meshed well with other narrative advantages of a flat or shallow picture space. Objects need not be made larger or smaller depending on their ...