To Scale

This innovative new volume offers an in-depth exploration of scale, one of the most crucial elements in the creation and reception of art.

• Illustrates how scale has compelled audiences to rethink the significance and importance of specific works of art
• Takes a comparative art historical approach exploring issues of scale in an array of forms, from Islamic architecture to contemporary photography
• A global consideration of scale, with examples of work from ancient Egypt, eighteenth-century Korea, and contemporary Europe
• The newest addition to the Art History Special Issue Book Series

Notes on Contributors 6

Chapter 1 Scale to Size: An Introduction 8
Joan Kee and Emanuele Lugli

Chapter 2 Scale and Pictoriality in Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture 26
Whitney Davis

Chapter 3 The Invisible Miniature: Framing the Soul in Chinese Art and Architecture 44
Wu Hung

Chapter 4 The Monumental Miniature: Liquid Architecture in the Kilgas of Cairo 62
Margaret S. Graves

Chapter 5 ‘Freedom I do reveal to you’: Scale, Microarchitecture, and the Rise of the Turriform Civic Monument in Fourteenth-Century Northern Europe 82
Achim Timmermann

Chapter 6 Measuring the Bones: On Francesco di Giorgio Martini’s Saluzzianus Skeleton 104
Emanuele Lugli

Chapter 7 The Measure of the World: Scenes From a Journey to Kaeso¢ng 122
Joan Kee

Chapter 8 Photography and Scale: Projection, Exhibition, Collection 144
Olivier Lugon

Index 163

Joan Kee is Associate Professor of History of Art at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The author of Contemporary Korean Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method (2013), she has published articles in an array of journals, including Artforum, Art Bulletin, Oxford Art Journal, Third Text, Art Margins and The Journal of Law, Culture and Humanities.

Emanuele Lugli is Lecturer in History of Art and Architecture at the University of York, UK. With articles published in Art History, Gesta and Word & Image, his first book, Unità di Misura: Breve Storia del Metro in Italia (2014) reconstructs the cultural revolution sparked by the arrival of the metric system in nineteenth-century Italy.

Scale, or the relative dimension of an object, has long been one of the most crucial elements in the creation, circulation, and reception of art. Often mistaken as size, scale is the impetus behind the profoundly visceral ways in which we perceive and interpret works of art, calling into question the role of the viewer, the restrictions of the medium, and the impact of cultural narratives. This innovative new collection provides a comparative survey of issues of scale in a variety of artistic forms, from Islamic architecture to modern photography. Featuring an international array of case studies, with examples from ancient Egypt, eighteenth century Korea, and contemporary Europe, this volume offers a uniquely global history of artistic scale. Each of the essays interrogates questions of scale as they relate to the perception and creation of specific works of art, illustrating the role that scale plays in determining how and why art matters.