Melich

oil on canvas

Leonardo da Vinci

www.stores.eBay.com/GrapefruitMoonGallery

Lady Elizabeth Walshe Flemish School York Museums Trust

Iconometry and Proportions of Gautama Buddha, 1974. Buddhist artistic traditions of the Himalayas, Tibet, and Central Asia are following established guidelines for determining body proportions in figurative art. This is called Iconometry. The theory of Iconometry is based on taking measurements of the various parts of the human body - head, torso, limbs, fingers - and comparing those measurements to create guidelines for standardized codes for use in art. The measurements can vary greatly according to the different body types, such as Buddha figures, or peaceful and wrathful Deities. The earliest code of Iconometric measurements used in Himalayan art came from an Indian cultural aesthete, though there are many Indian textual sources which helped to create an early pan-Indian figurative aesthetic. This was naturally adopted by the Buddhists and eventually made its way to the Himalayas and Central Asia. Some early Buddhist textual examples for the study of Iconometric proportions include the Manjushri Mulakalpa, Samvarodaya, Krishna Yamari, and Kalachakra Tantras. In practice, Iconometry functions as a grid of horizontal and vertical lines with accompanying numerical notations. They are used for both marking the measurements of the figure and also for arranging the posture of a figure within a composition. These grids guide all different variations: seated or standing postures, placement of hands and arms, even the direction of the head. In depicting Deity figures there is the added complexity of multiple heads, arms, and legs.