Persian low relief from Qajar era in the style of Persepolis, located at Tangeh Savashi.

Types of relief

Detail in high relief from the Ancient Greek Elgin Marbles. Some front limbs are detatched from the background completely, while the centaur's back rear leg is in low relief.

Bas-relief or Low relief

A bas-relief ( ("bah relief") in French; French for "low relief", derived from the Italian basso rilievo) or low relief is where the overall depth of a projecting image is shallow. The background is very compressed or completely flat, as on most coins, on which all images are in low-relief.

Bas-relief is very suitable for scenes with many figures and other elements such as a landscape or architectural background. A bas-relief may use any medium or technique of sculpture, but stone carving and metal casting are the traditional ones. If more than 50% of most rounded or cylindrical elements such as heads and legs project from the background, and are given their natural volume in the projecting parts, a sculpture is usually considered to be "alto rilievo" or "high relief", although the degree of relief within both types may vary across a composition, with prominent features such as faces in higher relief.

High relief

High relief or Alto-relievo, from the Italian, is where the at least the most prominent elements of the composition are undercut and rendered at more than 50% in the round against the background.

All cultures and periods where large sculptures were created used this technique as one of their sculptural options. Seen in "monumental sculpture" and architecture from ancient times to present.

Sunken relief

Sunken-relief depiction of Pharaoh Ankhenaten with his wife Nefertiti and daughters. Note how strong shadows are needed to define the image.

Famous reliefs

Famous examples of reliefs include:

• Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Keystone, South Dakota, high relief
• Great Altar of Pergamon, now at the Pergamon Museum, Berlin, mostly high relief
• Lions and dragons from the Ishtar Gate, Babylon, low relief
• Temple of Karnak in Egypt, sunken relief
• Angkor Wat in Cambodia, mostly low relief
• The images of the elephant, horse, bull and lion at the bottom of the Lion Capital of Asoka, the national symbol of India (the capital itself is a full sculpture)
• Glyphs and artwork of the Maya civilization, low relief
• The monument to the Confederacy at Stone Mountain, Georgia
• Borobudur temple, Java Island Java, Indonesia
• The Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon, now housed at the British Museum, high and low relief.
• Frieze of Parnassus, high relief
• Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, Boston, mostly high relief.

Gallery

<gallery> Image:Clonfert angels-north (ajusted) 20006-06-21.jpg|Angels from Clonfert Cathedral, Co Galway, Ireland (adjusted to highlight relief) Image:Mayapanel1.JPG|Yaxchilan Lintel 24, a Mayan carving depicting a blood sacrifice Image:5 Dynasties 10 Kingdoms Relief.JPG|Chinese lady musicians from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907-960 AD) Image:Ancient Egyptian Alto-relievo.jpg|Egyptian figures in "alto relievo" Image:Banteay Srei in Angkor.jpg|A bas-relief at Banteay Srei in Cambodia depicts Ravana shaking Mount Kailasa, the residence of Siva. Image:St GuadensShaw Mem.jpg|Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, 1897, Boston, combining free-standing elements with high and low relief. Image:Atropos.JPG|Atropos cutting the thread of life </gallery>

See also

External links

• Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, "American Relief Sculpture", Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

• Melissa Hardiman, "Bas-Relief Pathfinder"

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