A proportion is defined as "a relative relationship of magnitude between one quantity and another", or "a satisfactory relationship between two things".
Proportions are used in many fields: the proportions of the human body, of a work of architecture or of an object, the proportions of the ingredients in a recipe or cocktail, or the proportions of a geometric figure.
We often associate this word with the notion of measure and balance: we'll say of a human body that it's well or badly proportioned, we'll speak of the good or bad proportions of a building or a painting.
In everyday language, it is often associated with harmony or its opposite: the harmonious proportions of a car, or the disproportionate nature of a person's words. In cooking, it's important to respect the proportions of ingredients when preparing a recipe.
"Good" proportions are synonymous with balance: they are pleasing to the eye and to the taste. "Wrong" proportions, on the other hand, are synonymous with displeasure and rejection.
Proportion is often associated with the notion of norm: "a sense of proportion", "just proportion", "harmony of proportions" are expressions used to describe dimensions that respect an aesthetic canon accepted by a large number of people.
When a child draws a horse, he's said to have a sense of proportion when his drawing respects the proportions of his model, or at least of the idea we have of a horse.
But what about the proportions of a building or an abstract painting, which cannot be compared to a model ?
When we are confronted with a new object, we compare its external and internal dimensions, and therefore its proportions, to the contents of a mental catalog we have unconsciously created for ourselves: the proportions of our own body.
We've had these proportions in front of us all day, since birth.
It's the proportions of the fingers on our hands, of the face we see in the mirror every morning, and of our own limbs that enable us to assess the harmony (or its opposite) of what we're looking at.
This process is completely unconscious, and is most certainly affected by the system of measurement we use today, the metric system.
We'll see why later in the site.
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