Proper right and proper left

Common card · No. 457973

Proper right and proper left are terms used to unambiguously convey relative direction when describing an image or other object. Proper comes from a Latin word meaning "one's own"; the "proper right" hand of a figure is the hand that would be regarded by that figure as its own right hand. In a frontal representation, that appears on the left as the viewer sees it, creating the potential for ambiguity if the hand is just described as the "right hand". The terms are mainly used in discussing images of humans, whether in art history, medical contexts such as x-ray images, or elsewhere, but they can be used in describing any object that has an unambiguous front and back (for example furniture) or, when describing things that move or change position, with reference to the original position. However a more restricted use may be preferred, and the internal instructions for cataloguing objects in the "Inventory of American Sculpture" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum say that "The terms...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Herman Wilhelm Bissen (1798-1868), Public domain