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Relief sculpture definition, types, history
1. 16/11/2020 Relief Sculpture: Definition, Types, History
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Relief Sculpture
Definition, Types, History, Famous Reliefs.
MAIN A-Z INDEX - A-Z of SCULPTURE
Jacob & Esau Relief, Gates of Paradise
(1425-52, Florence) Lorenzo Ghiberti.
The first and greatest relief masterpiece
of Italian Renaissance sculpture.
Relief Sculpture
Contents
• What is Relief Sculpture?
• Types of Relief
• History
• Famous Reliefs
Gothic Ivory Relief sculpture
of the Passion of Christ (1350-65)
depicting the Washing of the Feet,
and the Last Supper. A masterpiece
of Biblical art of the 14th century.
Walters Art Museum.
BEST SCULPTURES
For a list of the world's top 100
3-D artworks, by the best sculptors
in the history of art, see:
Greatest Sculptures Ever.
GUIDE TO PLASTIC ARTS
See: Art of Sculpture.
What is Relief Sculpture? Definition and Meaning
In plastic art, relief sculpture is any work which projects from but which
belongs to the wall, or other type of background surface, on which it is
carved. Reliefs are traditionally classified according to how high the figures
project from the background. Also known as relievo, relief sculpture is a
combination of the two-dimensional pictorial arts and the three-dimensional
sculptural arts. Thus a relief, like a picture, is dependent on a background
surface and its composition must be extended in a plane in order to be visible.
Yet at the same time a relief also has a degree of real three-dimensionality,
just like a proper sculpture.
Reliefs tend to be more common than freestanding sculpture for a number of
reasons. First, a relief sculpture can portray a far wider range of subjects
than a statue because of its economy of resources. For instance, a battle
scene, that, if sculpted in the round, would require a huge amount of space
and material, can be rendered much more easily in relief. Second, because a
relief is attached to its background surface, problems of weight and physical
balance do not arise - unlike in statues and other freestanding sculptures
where weight and balance can be critical. Third, because reliefs are carved
directly onto walls, portals, ceilings, floors and other flat surfaces, they are
ideally suited to architectural projects - typically the greatest source of
sculptural commissions - for which they can provide both decorative and
narrative functions.
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2. 16/11/2020 Relief Sculpture: Definition, Types, History
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Detail of high relief sculpture
from the Arch of Constantine (c.315).
Close-up of a scene from the
military campaigns of Constantine I,
from the triumphal arch situated
between the Colosseum and the
Palatine Hill in Rome.
BEST SCULPTORS
For a list of the world's most
talented 3-D artists, see:
Greatest Sculptors.
EVOLUTION OF SCULPTURE
For details of the origins and
development of the plastic arts
see: History of Sculpture.
TYPES OF SCULPTING
Stone Sculpture
Granite, limestone, sandstone.
Marble Sculpture
Types of Relief Sculpture
There are three basic types of relief sculpture: (1) low relief (basso-relievo,
or bas-relief), where the sculpture projects only slightly from the background
surface; (2) high relief (alto-relievo, or alto-relief), where the sculpture
projects at least half or more of its natural circumference from the
background, and may in parts be wholly disengaged from the ground, thus
approximating sculpture in the round. [Sculptors may also employ middle-relief
(mezzo-relievo), a style which falls roughly between the high and low forms];
(3) sunken relief, (incised, coelanaglyphic or intaglio relief), where the
carving is sunk below the level of the surrounding surface and is contained
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Pentelic, Carrara, Parian marbles.
Bronze Sculpture
Lost-wax casting/sandcasting.
Wood Carving
Softwoods and hardwoods.
within a sharpely incised contour line that frames it with a powerful line of
shadow. The surrounding surface remains untouched, with no projections.
Sunken relief carving is found almost exclusively in ancient Egyptian art,
although it has also been used in some beautiful small-scale ivory reliefs from
India.
In addition to the basic types listed above, there is an extremely subtle type
of flat low relief carving, known as Statiacciato relief (rilievo schiacciato),
that is particularly associated with the 15th century sculptor Donatello. This
statiacciato design is partly rendered with finely engraved chiselled lines and
partly carved in relief. It depends for its effect on the way in which pale-
coloured materials, like white marble, react to light and show up the most
delicate lines and changes of texture.
Reliefs may be abstract in style as well as representational or figurative.
Abstract reliefs, both geometric and curvilinear, have been found in many
different cultures, including those of Ancient Greece, the Celts, Mexico, the
Vikings, and Islam. Representational and figurative relief sculpture is strongly
associated with the Greeks, the Romans, Romanesque and Gothic
architecture, and European sculpture from the Renaissance onwards.
History of Relief Sculpture
In simple terms, the development of relief sculpture was marked by swings
between pictorial and sculptural dominance. For instance in Greek art, reliefs
are more like contracted sculpture than expanded pictures. Figures inhabit a
space which is defined by the solid forms of the figures themselves and is
limited by the background plane. This background plane is not used to create
a receding perspective but rather as a finite impenetrable barrier in front of
which the figures exist. By comparison, Renaissance relief sculpture makes full
use of perspective, which is a pictorial method of representing 3-D spatial
relationships on a 2-D surface, and thus has much in common with fine art
painting.
Prehistoric Relief Sculpture
The earliest reliefs date back to the cave art of the Upper Paleolithic, around
25,000 BCE. The oldest relief sculptures in France are: the Venus of Laussel
(23,000 BCE), a limestone bas-relief of a female figure, found in the Dordogne;
the rare Abri du Poisson Cave Salmon Carving (23,000 BCE) at Les Eyzies de
Tayac, Perigord; the Solutrean Roc-de-Sers Cave Frieze (17,200 BCE) in the
Charente; the Magdalenian era Cap Blanc Frieze (15,000 BCE); the Tuc
d'Audoubert Bison (13,500 BCE); and the outstanding limestone frieze at Roc-
aux-Sorciers (12,000 BCE) found in the Vienne. Outside France there are the
badly preserved clay reliefs in the Kapova Cave in Russia. Other reliefs have
been found incised on numerous megaliths from the Neolithic era.
Note About Sculpture Appreciation
To learn how to evaluate high-relief and low-relief sculpture, see:
How to Appreciate Sculpture. For later works, please see: How to
Appreciate Modern Sculpture.
Ancient Relief Sculpture
During the civilizations of the Ancient World (c.3,500-600 BCE), reliefs were
commonly seen on the surfaces of stone buildings in ancient Egypt, Assyria
and other Middle Eastern cultures. An example of Mesopotamian sculpture is
the set of lions and dragons from the Ishtar Gate, Babylon, executed in low
relief. See also the alabaster carvings of lion-hunts featuring Ashurnasirpal II
and Ashurbanipal, a typical example of Assyrian art (c.1500-612 BCE).
Egyptian sculptors tended to employ sunken relief. Figures are depicted
standing sideways and are contained within a sharply insized outline: see for
instance the many sunken reliefs at the Temple of Karnak in Egypt. Low reliefs
were especially common in Chinese sculpture. For a guide to the principles
behind Oriental arts, see: Traditional Chinese Art: Characteristics.
High reliefs did not become common until Classical Antiquity (c.500 BCE
onwards), when Ancient Greek sculptors began to explore the genre more
thoroughly. Attic tomb relief sculpture dating from the 4th century BCE are
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notable examples, as are the sculptured friezes used in the decoration of the
Parthenon and other classical temples. For details of Hellenistic reliefs, like the
Altar of Zeus, see: Pergamene School of Hellenistic Sculpture (241-133 BCE).
Relief sculptures were prominent in early Christian sculpture - notably in the
sarcophagi of wealthy Christians during the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE (see also
Relief Sculpture of Ancient Rome). See also: early Christian art (150 onwards).
During the period 600-1100, abstract reliefs appeared in numerous cultures
around the world, as disparate as the Mixtec culture in Mexico, the
Norse/Viking culture and Islamic environments across the Middle East.
Medieval Relief Sculpture
In Europe during the period 1000-1200, Christian art mostly took the form of
architecture, notably the building program of cathedrals, abbeys and churches
financed by the Christian Church of Rome. Although statuary was a feature of
this religious art, the main emphasis was on relief sculpture, as exemplified by
the wonderful reliefs which decorate the portals (tympana) of Romanesque
cathedrals in France, Germany, England and other countries. (See also
Romanesque Sculpture.) The Gothic period maintained this tradition though
Gothic sculptors typically preferred a higher relief, in accordance with the
renewed interest in statuary that characterized the fourteenth century. (See
also Gothic sculpture.)
NOTE: One of the most extensive displays of erotic relief sculpture
in the world can be seen at the Kandariya Mahadeva Temple
complex at Khajuraho, in Madhya Pradesh, India. The temple was
built in the Middle Ages, between 1017 and 1029.
The Renaissance Onwards
The Italian Renaissance (c.1400-1600) brought a noticeable change, as
illustrated by the famous bronze doors that Lorenzo Ghiberti made for the
Baptistry of Florence Cathedral. In order to exploit the full potential for
perspective, figures in the foreground of the composition were done in high
relief, making them appear close at hand, while background features were
done in low relief, thus depicting distance. In his sculpture, Donatello further
developed this approach by adding textural contrasts between rough and
smooth surfaces. Thus in general Renaissance relief sculptors tended to make
maximum use of the pictorial possibilities of the 2-D background, although
there were exceptions. Two such trends were: the delicate and low reliefs in
marble and terracotta of Desiderio da Settignano, and the more robust and
sculptural relief style employed by Michelangelo. (For more information, see
Renaissance sculptors.)
The first Fontainebleau School (c.1530-70), a style of French Mannerist art
named after the royal palace of the French King Francis I (1494-1547), was
famous for its intricate relief sculpture in stucco, in which the stucco was cut
into strips, rolled at the ends then intertwined to form fantastic shapes. Key
artists at Fontainebleau included Francesco Primaticcio (1504-70) and Rosso
Fiorentino (1494-1540).
Baroque relief sculptors further developed the pictorial approach used in
Renaissance art, often on a very large scale. Sometimes their large relief
compositions actually became a kind of painting in marble, as exemplified by
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Bernini, which included figures carved almost fully
in the round but encased in a marble altar. (See also Baroque sculptors and
Neoclassical sculptors.) A few exponents of Neoclassical sculpture, like
Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen, temporarily revived the use of low
reliefs in pursuit of what they saw as classical rigour and purity, but on the
whole the Renaissance concept of "pictorial-style" relief prevailed, reaching a
high point in the work of nineteenth century sculptors such as Francois Rude
(Arc de Triomph) and Auguste Rodin (Gates of Hell).
The greatest and most famous relief sculpture of the 20th century is the
Mount Rushmore National Memorial (1927-41), produced under Gutzon
Borglum. This unique work features high relief granite portraits of American
![16/11/2020 Relief Sculpture: Definition, Types, History
www.visual-arts-cork.com/sculpture/relief.htm 2/5
Detail of high relief sculpture
from the Arch of Constantine (c.315).
Close-up of a scene from the
military campaigns of Constantine I,
from the triumphal arch situated
between the Colosseum and the
Palatine Hill in Rome.
BEST SCULPTORS
For a list of the world's most
talented 3-D artists, see:
Greatest Sculptors.
EVOLUTION OF SCULPTURE
For details of the origins and
development of the plastic arts
see: History of Sculpture.
TYPES OF SCULPTING
Stone Sculpture
Granite, limestone, sandstone.
Marble Sculpture
Types of Relief Sculpture
There are three basic types of relief sculpture: (1) low relief (basso-relievo,
or bas-relief), where the sculpture projects only slightly from the background
surface; (2) high relief (alto-relievo, or alto-relief), where the sculpture
projects at least half or more of its natural circumference from the
background, and may in parts be wholly disengaged from the ground, thus
approximating sculpture in the round. [Sculptors may also employ middle-relief
(mezzo-relievo), a style which falls roughly between the high and low forms];
(3) sunken relief, (incised, coelanaglyphic or intaglio relief), where the
carving is sunk below the level of the surrounding surface and is contained](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)