Relief (sculpture)
- For other uses, see Relief (sculpture) (disambiguation).
A relief is a sculptured artwork where a modelled form is raised, or in sunken-relief lowered, from a flatish background plane without being disconnected from it. It is therefore not free-standing or in the round, but has a background from which the main elements of the composition project (or sink). Reliefs are common throughout the world, for example on the walls of monumental buildings. The frieze in the classical Corinthian order is often enriched with bas-relief (low relief). Alto-relievo (high-relief) may been seen in the pediments of classical temples, e.g., the Parthenon. Several panels or sections of relief together may represent a sequence of scenes.
Types of relief
There are three main types of relief. The drawing of the distinction between high and low is often drawn differently, and in fact the two are very often combined in a single work - in particular most "high-reliefs" contain sections in "low-relief." Dashes may or may not be used in all these terms.
Bas-relief or Low relief
A bas-relief (pronounced [baʁəljɛf] ("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, also known as intaglio or hollow-relief, is where the image is made by carving into a flat surface - usually the images are mostly linear in nature. It is most famously associated with the Art of Ancient Egypt, where the strong sunlight usually needed to make the technique successful for images is present most of the time. In the sculpture of many cultures, including Europe, it is mostly used for inscriptions.
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
- Clonfert angels-north (ajusted) 20006-06-21.jpg
Angels from Clonfert Cathedral, Co Galway, Ireland (adjusted to highlight relief)
- Mayapanel1.JPG
Yaxchilan Lintel 24, a Mayan carving depicting a blood sacrifice
- 5 Dynasties 10 Kingdoms Relief.JPG
Chinese lady musicians from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907-960 C.E.)
Egyptian figures in "alto relievo"
- St GuadensShaw Mem.jpg
Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, 1897, Boston, combining free-standing elements with high and low relief.
- Atropos.JPG
Atropos cutting the thread of life
See also
- Mount Rushmore
- Temple of Karnak in Egypt
- Bayon, Angkor
- Angkor Wat in Cambodia
- Lion Capital of Asoka, India
- Maya civilization
- Monument of the Confederacy at Stone Mountain, Georgia
- Borobudur temple
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Conlin, Diane Atnally. The Artists of the Ara Pacis: The Process of Hellenization in Roman Relief Sculpture (Studies in the History of Greece and Rome), The University of North Carolina Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0807823439
- Cook, Brian. Relief Sculpture of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology) The first complete catalog of its friezes and other decorative reliefs with descriptions. Oxford University Press, USA, 2005. ISBN 978-0198132127
- Davis, Anita Price. New Deal Art in North Carolina: The Murals, Sculptures, Reliefs, Paintings, Oils and Frescoes and Their Creators, McFarland, 2008. ISBN 978-0786437795
- Marconi, Clemente. Temple Decoration and Cultural Identity in the Archaic Greek World: The Metopes of Selinus, Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0521857970
- Rogers, L.R. Relief Sculpture (Appreciation of the Arts), Oxford University Press, 1974. ISBN 978-0192119209
- Ridgway, Brunilde S. Prayers in Stone: Greek Architectural Sculpture (c. 600-100 B.C.E.) (Sather Classical Lectures), University of California Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0520215566
External links
All links retrieved December 19, 2008.
- Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, "American Relief Sculpture", Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- Melissa Hardiman, "Bas-Relief Pathfinder"
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