Off The Wall And Special Things - Ancient Feet

On a recent trip to Italy, I found myself  inspired by ancient, or at least very old, feet.  To my surprise, a multitude of feet were smack on at eye level.  You see, it didn't take many churches, basilicas, or museums before my titanium plated cervical spine rebelled at ceiling gazing.  I discovered feet!

The challenge was to turn these feet into design inspiration.  Oh, well, yes, turning them into a business trip made cents as well.  Err, I mean 'sense'.  After all, photos and design inspiration do more for my business than any other kind of advertising.

But, what can a designer do with feet?  My tourist trekking feet hurt just thinking about it. However, it wasn't long before my aching neck calmed down and I realized they were not just feet.  They were just as much a design element as any shoe in today's fashion world or any light fixture in an interior.

Take a look back at the picture above (a close up of wall painting in the Vatican.) It is the feet and their many positions that give this painting as much movement, if not more than, as the other elements you can see.  Feet are important.

Before you noticed the nails holes in the feet to the left, you may have noticed the gripping pained toes. Feet can tell a story.  Design elements in any media can tell a story.




This foot not only sports a shoe that would be at home in any city in today's world, it moves our eyes to the right.  Not only does it move us and our eyes to the right, it does so with a sense of strength that is purposeful.  The foot works in harmony with the draping of the garment to enhance this sense of powerful movement.  Feet and design elements are not just out there all by themselves.  They have purpose.




The feet below on the lion body are softly powerful with their scale to the rest of the body. Their shape shows how they can push off the ground.  They are feet that we can recognize and connect with strength and quiet power.  Design elements can connect as well, to things we recognize and appreciate, such as a certain style or a skilled craftsman and wealth.

The bird feet are what help us to know they are attached to a bird.  It is their shape and ability to grip around the element beneath them that helps us to recognize what they are.  Sometimes designs leave us clueless, but most of the time we know through a design's elements if it is utilitarian, such as the softness and shape of a chair seat.  This type of element in design can also bring a sense of realism into something that isn't.  

The lion's feet are more flat to the line below it and the effect is that the body and all around them look flat, not real.  Ah, the bird's feet, by the minimal amount of curl around the element below them, they give the whole scene more depth and realism.

The feet on a close up of a small relief panel at right are certainly discernible, albeit not well detailed.  Still, they play an important role in the story.

The dark shadowed areas of the robe add depth to the scene.  The feet, they add perspective.  One foot comes from under the robe, making the robe seem further back and the foot closer to you.  The other foot sits outside and down from the robe, giving even more of a perspective or distant aspect to the elements above it.  These are design elements.  This type of perspective or sense of depth can be achieved in interiors as well.

The feet on the left show, power, wealth and stability.  Look at how stable the shapes are. Even though one foot is lifted, it is not at all an awkward or feeble movement.  The feet work in harmony with the other elements of the scene.  The strong and substantial looking shoes add to the strong powerful story.  The Robe has movement but does not look flimsy.  The toes are relaxed, not gripped as in Jesus' feet seen above with nail holes.  The design element of color works here as well to tell us about wealth and boldness.  The robes are the gold of money and the shoes the red of the famous rare stone of the day.  It takes a bold and wealthy person to put these seemingly well manicured feet into these shoes and robes.

It is all about harmony.  These Roman feet work hard to contribute to their setting as a whole.

There are many ways for design elements to tell a story.  The feet, and hands, of this statue also show strength and power.  This power is more physical, more raw.  There is no color to clue us in, but we have scale and shape and lines.

There is a softness to the lines of the robe, however, the robe falls around a mighty large scale knee and foot.  The lines of the hands and foot are hard and even somewhat rough looking.  There is no manicured foot as above.  The toes are spread, suggesting strength and solid grounding.

This foot works in harmony with the rest of the statue to tell us a story.  It adds more than you might think to the story.  Put your hand over the foot so you can't see it and notice how the power and strength of this statue diminished.



The feet of this statue also look powerful.  Yet, they are not working in harmony with the rest of the scene to promote power and wealth.  Their role here is to relax.

The toe positions of the lower foot and the loose downward drop of the foot itself provide a sense of relaxation.  It doesn't really look comfortable, but relaxed in its setting.  The downward movement of the shape of the leg and foot tells us there is no need for gripping toes here. The lines are mostly vertical and point down, these lines are relaxing design elements in any media.

The Horizontal lines of the foot, hand and arm above are the opposite design element.  Horizontal lines can be a bit more unsettling and can provide a tense awareness.  Bringing harmony to a whole scene or space in any media takes knowledge and skill.

The swaying tilting movement of the lines of the feet, legs and bodies in the first painting above give movement and action.  It is the same in interior design.  The more relaxed curves of the feet, legs and bodies above are a design element that adds a soft and easy sway.  It is not chaotic or too dramatic.

Although you cannot see more than the foot and a bit of leg here, you know there is tenseness and unrelaxed elements to the scene.  The foot is hanging down without support and not showing power in that way.  Yet, the scale of the foot from this angle does show some power and strength. The foot looks as if it is at a strong angle to the leg, another unsettling not soft design element. It looks wide, there are horizontal lines that don't quite let us feel relaxed.  There are horizontal lines in the stone behind the foot that add to this scene of heightened awareness.  Circles are a strong dominating design element.  The bottoms of most toes here are pretty much circles.  This adds even more strength and power to the scene. Place your finger over all but the big toe and notice the softer version of the scene.  Circles are strong.


This foot is substantial in scale to the robes above it.  It is flat and stable, yet the strong angle between foot and leg, as well as the horizontal line of the foot, tell us not to get too relaxed.  There is some power and strength here but at the same time the soft curve of the robe and its vertical lines help us to feel comfortable with this scene.



This copper foot is dangling from a horse, there is no stirrup.  The foot is all tied up, protected.  It is not quite relaxed as we can surmise from the horizontal line of the bottom of the foot.  The color of it's aging mottled copper is a bit forlorn. Although there is as much substantial shoe as in the red ones above, this shoe is not provoking power and strength.  The material of the shoe does not seem thick.  The shoe laces sag down with slight curvatures.  It is relaxed.  The design elements of the foot and its wrappings are not strong due to the lack of strong detail and depth.  This is the foot of Mark Antony.



It takes great skill to use all design elements in harmonious ways to produce a desired effect of the whole.

Rome, has been known for centuries to be a great place to study design and perfect one's knowledge of its elements.

Who knew that not looking up, while in Rome, could make one focus on design elements often missed when trying to take in such enormous scenes?

I am now much inspired to use design elements in the smaller details of my work.