Principles of Art - Proportion

Proportion: the principle of art concerned with the size relationship of one part to another.

Something cannot be considered big unless it is compared to something which is considered small. Likewise, something cannot be considered small unless it is compared to something big.

If you saw only the clothespin*, you might assume that it is not very big at all. But when you see the people in the foreground, you can see that it is huge! It is 45 feet tall as a matter of fact!

*The artist is Claes Oldenburg, who created the 45-foot high Clothespin statue installed in 1976, west of City Hall on Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia. Another of his works is the Split Button, on display at the University of Pennsylvania.

Is this a real house or a dollhouse?*

What about this one?**

*Answer for the first house: It's a dollhouse!

**Answer for the second house: Canadian artist Heather Benning took an old abandoned farmhouse and turned it into this beautiful life-size dollhouse. She protected her creation with plexi-glass and left it there as an art installation.