Editing Hierarchical proportion

{{Short description|Art technique in sculpture and painting}}
[[File:TombofNebamun-2.jpg|thumb|[[Nebamun]] hunting birds in the marshes using cats, fragment of a scene from the [[Tomb of Nebamun|tomb-chapel of Nebamun]], [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]], [[Egypt]]
Late [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt|18th Dynasty]], around 1350 BC.<ref name="British MuseumNebamun" />]]
'''Hierarchical proportion''' is a technique used in art, mostly in [[sculpture]] and [[painting]], in which the artist uses unnatural [[Body proportions|proportion]] or [[scale (ratio)|scale]] to depict the relative importance of the figures in the artwork.

For example, in [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] times, people of higher status would sometimes be drawn or sculpted larger than those of lower status.

During the [[Early Middle Ages|Dark Ages]], people with more status had larger proportions than serfs. During the Renaissance images of the human body began to change, as proportion was used to depict the reality an artist interpreted.

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="220px" perrow="3">
File:Narmer-Tjet2.JPG|The [[Narmer Palette]] - [[Obverse and reverse|obverse]] side, [[Early Dynastic Period of Egypt]], about the 31st century BC
File:Victory stele of Naram Sin 9062.jpg|Victory [[stele]] of [[Naram-Sin of Akkad|Naram Sin]], the [[Akkadian Empire]] in ancient [[Mesopotamia]], 2350 - 2000 BC
File:BD Weighing of the Heart.jpg|The Weighing of the Heart from the [[Papyrus of Ani|Book of the Dead of Ani]], [[Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt|19th dynasty]] of the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom of ancient Egypt]], c. 1250 B.C.
File:Cancuenpanel3.jpg|Panel 3 from [[Maya civilization|Maya]] city [[Cancuén]] portraying the ruler [[Tajal Chan Ahk]], 8th-century
File:Clm 4453 fol 24r Detail Herrscherbild.jpg|[[Otto III]] from the [[Gospels of Otto III]], [[Reichenau Island|Reichenau Abbey]] in southern [[Germany]], late 10th or early 11th century
File:Autun St Lazare Tympanon.jpg|[[Last Judgement]] by [[Gislebertus]] in the west [[Tympanum (architecture)|tympanum]] of the [[Autun Cathedral]] in [[France]], 1120 - 1146.
File:Duccio maesta1021.jpg|[[Maestà (Duccio)|Maestà of Duccio]], [[Siena]], [[Italy]], 1308 – 1311
File:Hugo van der Goes 004.jpg|[[Portinari Altarpiece]], [[Flemish painter]] [[Hugo van der Goes]] for the church of the [[hospital of Santa Maria Nuova]] in [[Florence]] in [[Italy]], c. 1475.
File:Brooklyn Museum - Zumurrud Shah Takes Refuge in the Mountains - overall.jpg|Zumurrud Shah takes refuge in the mountains ([[India]], ca. 1570, illustration to [[Hamzanama]]<ref name="Hamzanama" />)
File:Brooklyn Museum - Battle of Karbala - Abbas Al-Musavi - overall.jpg|[[Battle of Karbala]], [[Hussein ibn Ali|Imam Husayn's]] half brother [[Al-Abbas ibn Ali|Abbas Al-Musavi]] in focus, [[Isfahan]], [[Iran]], late 19th - early 20th century <ref name="BrooklynMuseumKarbala" />
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Art movement]]
* [[Creativity techniques]]
* [[List of art media]]
* [[List of artistic media]]
* [[List of art movements]]
* [[List of most expensive paintings]]
* [[List of most expensive sculptures]]
* [[List of art techniques]]
* [[List of sculptors]]

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist |refs

<ref name="British MuseumNebamun">{{cite web |url = https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/n/nebamun_hunting_in_the_marshes.aspx |title = British Museum - Nebamun hunting in the marshes, fragment of a scene from the tomb-chapel of Nebamun |publisher =  British Museum |location= London |accessdate= 7 July 2013 }}</ref>

<ref name="BrooklynMuseumKarbala">{{cite web |url = http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/3054/Battle_of_Karbala |title = Brooklyn Museum: Arts of the Islamic World: Battle of Karbala |publisher =  Brooklyn Museum |location= Brooklyn, New York |accessdate= 7 July 2013 }}</ref>

<ref name="Hamzanama">{{cite web |url = http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/hamza/ |title = The adventures of Hamza |publisher =  Smithsonian Institution |location=Washington, D.C. |accessdate= 7 July 2013 }}</ref>

}}

===Bibliography===
*''Artforms'' by Preble, Preble, Frank; Prentice Hall 2004

==External links==
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/74020 'Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples], a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on hierarchical proportion

[[Category:Artistic techniques]]


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