The Egyptian Canon Of Proportion

Both, the Egyptians and the Greeks had a certain set of rules that a lot of their works were based on.

The Egyptian Canon of Proportions consisted of carefully planed square grid systems. The works that followed the Canon were executed by first laying out a grid with inked lines, and than painting or sculpting the figures. By using the grid, the artists made each human figure eighteen squares tall. The knees were six squares above the ground-line. And the shoulders were aligned with the sixteenth square and were six squares wide. The Stele of Userwer (fig. 1) is a great example of the Canon, because it shows the underlying grid and the beginning phases of sculpting. This technique shows that the Egyptians utilized proportions and mathematics

not only in architecture, but they also saw these relationships in organic shapes (humans). The technique of utilizing grids to create more precise and uniform art is still used today in traditional, as well as digital art.
The Canon of Polykleitus was similar to the Egyptian Canon of Proportions in the way that it relied on mathematical proportions and equal units of measure.

Though historians still have not agreed on what that measure was, some think that it was the length of the head from the chin to the hairline, while others think that it was the length of the index finger. There are many works that utilize these principles. One example would be the Warrior sculpture (fig. 2) made around 460 BCE. The work depicts a very life-like figure. Because of the fact that there are many similar sculptures that survived from that time, it is clear that that specific body type was considered the “ideal” body. Now, roughly 2,500 years later, we as a society, still consider the same body type to be most desirable. The Canon from 460 BCE helped shaped our perception of bodies in the modern era, which is seen in art and the entertainment industry worldwide.

One of the differences between the Egyptian Canon and the Canon of Polykleitus is that the Canon of Polykleitus was a set of guidelines that was meant to help create a figure that is very idealistic, but also very life-like in the way that it is rendered. While the Egyptian Canon of Proportions aided the artist in creating a more abstract figure that is still recognizable as human, but is nowhere as realistic as the Greek

sculptures.