Reply To: Perfect Proportion

[Bob Hook]

The Classical period of Greek art brought together the tools, knowledge, and materials to begin depicting humans in a more lifelike manner. With the ability to control images to a greater degree the artist began to set idealized standards of proportion and images for both men and woman. They rendered these images in marble and created them as standalone images or as parts of a temple. The Erechtheion or the Porch of Maidens Athens, c. 420-410 BCE is a great example of these images.
The women are all identical stylized with a straight bold stance, clinging clothes that show their individual forms. Their hair is woven into intricate identical patterns. The obvious problem is once we begin to idolize one form of the human body we begin to create expectations for our own appearance. We establish a norm. If you meet those standards than you are highly valued. If you fall short and you begin to feel somehow inadequate. This perceived inadequacy is played upon by the marketplace in an attempt to sell you the one magic cure-all in clothes, protein powders, make-up, etc that will allow you to achieve the perceived definition of beauty