Using Clay to Make Low Relief Strips of Art That Often Depicted Scenes of War

Sculptural technique

The term relief refers to a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, to heighten. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted cloth has been raised above the background plane.^[1] When a relief is carved into a apartment surface of stone (relief sculpture) or woods (relief etching), the field is actually lowered, leaving the unsculpted areas seeming college. The approach necessitates a lot of chiselling abroad of the background, which takes a long fourth dimension. On the other hand, a relief saves forming the rear of a bailiwick, and is less frail and more securely fixed than a sculpture in the round, peculiarly one of a standing effigy where the ankles are a potential weak point, especially in rock. In other materials such equally metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mâché the form tin be simply added to or raised up from the background, and monumental bronze reliefs are made by casting.

There are dissimilar degrees of relief depending on the degree of projection of the sculpted form from the field, for which the Italian and French terms are still sometimes used in English language. The full range includes high relief (alto-rilievo, haut-relief),^[two] where more than 50% of the depth is shown and there may be undercut areas, mid-relief (mezzo-rilievo), depression relief (basso-rilievo), or French: bas-relief (French pronunciation: ​ [baʁəljɛf]), and shallow-relief or rilievo schiacciato,^[three] where the plane is only very slightly lower than the sculpted elements. At that place is as well sunk relief, which was mainly restricted to Ancient Egypt (run across below). Yet, the distinction between high relief and depression relief is the clearest and most important, and these two are more often than not the simply terms used to discuss most work.

The definition of these terms is somewhat variable, and many works combine areas in more than than one of them, rarely sliding between them in a unmarried effigy; accordingly some writers prefer to avoid all distinctions.^[4] The reverse of relief sculpture is counter-relief, intaglio, or cavo-rilievo, ^[5] where the form is cutting into the field or background rather than rising from it; this is very rare in awe-inspiring sculpture. Hyphens may or may not exist used in all these terms, though they are rarely seen in "sunk relief" and are usual in "bas-relief" and "counter-relief". Works in the technique are described as "in relief", and, especially in monumental sculpture, the piece of work itself is "a relief".

A face of the high-relief Frieze of Parnassus circular the base of the Albert Memorial in London. Most of the heads and many feet are completely undercut, just the torsos are "engaged" with the surface backside

Reliefs are mutual throughout the world on the walls of buildings and a variety of smaller settings, and a sequence of several panels or sections of relief may represent an extended narrative. Relief is more suitable for depicting complicated subjects with many figures and very active poses, such as battles, than free-standing "sculpture in the round". Most ancient architectural reliefs were originally painted, which helped to define forms in low relief. The subject of reliefs is for user-friendly reference assumed in this article to be commonly figures, just sculpture in relief often depicts decorative geometrical or foliage patterns, as in the arabesques of Islamic art, and may exist of any subject area.

A mutual mixture of high and low relief, in the Roman Ara Pacis, placed to be seen from below. Low relief decoration at bottom

Stone reliefs are those carved into solid rock in the open air (if inside caves, whether natural or man-fabricated, they are more than likely to be chosen "rock-cut"). This type is constitute in many cultures, in particular those of the Aboriginal Nearly Eastward and Buddhist countries. A stele is a single standing rock; many of these carry reliefs.

Types [edit]

The distinction betwixt high and depression relief is somewhat subjective, and the 2 are very often combined in a unmarried work. In particular, most later "high reliefs" contain sections in low relief, usually in the background. From the Parthenon Frieze onwards, many single figures in big monumental sculpture have heads in high relief, but their lower legs are in low relief. The slightly projecting figures created in this style piece of work well in reliefs that are seen from below, and reflect that the heads of figures are normally of more than interest to both artist and viewer than the legs or feet. As unfinished examples from diverse periods show, raised reliefs, whether high or low, were normally "blocked out" by marker the outline of the figure and reducing the background areas to the new background level, work no doubt performed by apprentices (come across gallery).

Low relief or bas-relief [edit]

A depression relief is a projecting prototype with a shallow overall depth, for case used on coins, on which all images are in depression relief. In the lowest reliefs the relative depth of the elements shown is completely distorted, and if seen from the side the image makes no sense, simply from the forepart the modest variations in depth annals as a three-dimensional epitome. Other versions misconstrue depth much less. The term comes from the Italian basso rilievo via the French bas-relief (French pronunciation: ​ [baʁəljɛf]), both meaning "depression relief". The sometime is now a very old-fashioned term in English, and the latter is becoming so.

It is a technique which requires less work, and is therefore cheaper to produce, as less of the background needs to exist removed in a carving, or less modelling is required. In the art of Ancient Arab republic of egypt, Assyrian palace reliefs, and other aboriginal Almost Eastern and Asian cultures, a consistent very depression relief was usually used for the whole limerick. These images would ordinarily be painted after carving, which helped ascertain the forms; today the paint has worn off in the bang-up majority of surviving examples, just infinitesimal, invisible remains of paint can ordinarily be discovered through chemical ways.

A depression-relief dating to circa 2000 BC, from the kingdom of Simurrum, modern Republic of iraq

The Ishtar Gate of Babylon, now in Berlin, has depression reliefs of large animals formed from moulded bricks, glazed in colour. Plaster, which made the technique far easier, was widely used in Egypt and the Near East from antiquity into Islamic times (latterly for architectural decoration, as at the Alhambra), Rome, and Europe from at least the Renaissance, as well as probably elsewhere. However, it needs very good weather condition to survive long in unmaintained buildings – Roman decorative plasterwork is mainly known from Pompeii and other sites buried by ash from Mount Vesuvius. Low relief was relatively rare in Western medieval fine art, merely may be found, for case in wooden figures or scenes on the insides of the folding wings of multi-console altarpieces.

The revival of low relief, which was seen as a classical style, begins early on in the Renaissance; the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini, a pioneering classicist edifice, designed by Leon Battista Alberti around 1450, uses depression reliefs by Agostino di Duccio within and on the external walls. Since the Renaissance plaster has been very widely used for indoor ornamental piece of work such as cornices and ceilings, but in the 16th century it was used for big figures (many also using loftier relief) at the Chateau of Fontainebleau, which were imitated more than crudely elsewhere, for case in the Elizabethan Hardwick Hall.

Shallow-relief, in Italian rilievo stiacciato or rilievo schicciato ("squashed relief"), is a very shallow relief, which merges into engraving in places, and can be hard to read in photographs. It is ofttimes used for the groundwork areas of compositions with the principal elements in low-relief, but its use over a whole (normally rather small-scale) slice was perfected by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Donatello.^[6]

In later Western art, until a 20th-century revival, low relief was used by and large for smaller works or combined with higher relief to convey a sense of altitude, or to give depth to the composition, especially for scenes with many figures and a mural or architectural groundwork, in the aforementioned manner that lighter colours are used for the aforementioned purpose in painting. Thus figures in the foreground are sculpted in high-relief, those in the background in low-relief. Low relief may use any medium or technique of sculpture, rock etching and metal casting existence most mutual. Large architectural compositions all in low relief saw a revival in the 20th century, being popular on buildings in Art Deco and related styles, which borrowed from the ancient low reliefs now available in museums.^[seven] Some sculptors, including Eric Gill, take adopted the "squashed" depth of low relief in works that are actually free-continuing.

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  "Blocked-out" unfinished low relief of Ahkenaten and Nefertiti; unfinished Greek and Persian high-reliefs testify the same method of showtime a work.

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  Atropos cutting the thread of life. Ancient Greek depression relief

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  Donatello, Madonna and Child in rilievo stiacciato or shallow relief

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  French 20th-century low relief

Mid-relief [edit]

Mid-relief, "half-relief" or mezzo-rilievo is somewhat imprecisely divers, and the term is non oftentimes used in English, the works usually being described every bit low relief instead. The typical traditional definition is that merely up to half of the bailiwick projects, and no elements are undercut or fully disengaged from the groundwork field. The depth of the elements shown is normally somewhat distorted.

Mid-relief is probably the most common blazon of relief constitute in the Hindu and Buddhist art of India and Southeast Asia. The low to mid-reliefs of 2nd-century BCE to 6th-century CE Ajanta Caves and 5th to 10th-century Ellora Caves in India are rock reliefs. Most of these reliefs are used to narrate sacred scriptures, such every bit the 1,460 panels of the 9th-century Borobudur temple in Central Java, Indonesia, narrating the Jataka tales or lives of the Buddha. Other examples are low reliefs narrating the Ramayana Hindu epic in Prambanan temple, also in Java, in Cambodia, the temples of Angkor, with scenes including the Samudra manthan or "Churning the Ocean of Milk" at the 12th-century Angkor Wat, and reliefs of apsaras. At Bayon temple in Angkor Thom at that place are scenes of daily life in the Khmer Empire.

Loftier relief [edit]

Loftier relief metope from the Classical Greek Parthenon Marbles. Some forepart limbs are actually discrete from the background completely, while the centaur's left rear leg is in depression relief.

High relief (or altorilievo, from Italian) is where in full general more than than one-half the mass of the sculpted figure projects from the groundwork. Indeed, the most prominent elements of the limerick, especially heads and limbs, are often completely undercut, detaching them from the field. The parts of the subject that are seen are normally depicted at their full depth, unlike low relief where the elements seen are "squashed" flatter. High relief thus uses substantially the aforementioned mode and techniques as free-standing sculpture, and in the case of a unmarried figure gives largely the same view as a person standing directly in front of a free-standing statue would have. All cultures and periods in which large sculptures were created used this technique in awe-inspiring sculpture and architecture.

Most of the many grand figure reliefs in Ancient Greek sculpture used a very "loftier" version of high relief, with elements often fully gratuitous of the groundwork, and parts of figures crossing over each other to indicate depth. The metopes of the Parthenon have largely lost their fully rounded elements, except for heads, showing the advantages of relief in terms of immovability. High relief has remained the dominant form for reliefs with figures in Western sculpture, also beingness common in Indian temple sculpture. Smaller Greek sculptures such as individual tombs, and smaller decorative areas such as friezes on large buildings, more frequently used depression relief.

Hellenistic and Roman sarcophagus reliefs were cut with a drill rather than chisels, enabling and encouraging compositions extremely crowded with figures, similar the Ludovisi Battle sarcophagus (250–260 CE). These are also seen in the enormous strips of reliefs that wound around Roman triumphal columns. The sarcophagi in particular exerted a huge influence on afterwards Western sculpture. The European Middle Ages tended to use high relief for all purposes in rock, though similar Ancient Roman sculpture, their reliefs were typically not as loftier as in Aboriginal Greece.^[viii] Very high relief re-emerged in the Renaissance, and was especially used in wall-mounted funerary art and later on Neoclassical pediments and public monuments.

In the Buddhist and Hindu art of India and Southeast Asia, loftier relief can also exist found, although information technology is not as common equally depression to mid-reliefs. Famous examples of Indian high reliefs can be institute at the Khajuraho temples, with voluptuous, twisting figures that oftentimes illustrate the erotic Kamasutra positions. In the ninth-century Prambanan temple, Key Coffee, loftier reliefs of Lokapala devatas, the guardians of deities of the directions, are constitute.

The largest loftier relief sculpture in the world is the Stone Mount Confederate Memorial in the U.S. state of Georgia, which was cutting 42 anxiety deep into the mountain,^[9] and measures 90 feet in elevation, 190 feet in width,^[10] and lies 400 feet above the ground.^[eleven]

Sunk relief [edit]

A sunk-relief depiction of Pharaoh Akhenaten with his wife Nefertiti and daughters. The main groundwork has not been removed, simply that in the immediate vicinity of the sculpted form. Note how potent shadows are needed to define the image.

Sunk or sunken relief is largely restricted to the art of Aboriginal Egypt where it is very mutual, condign after the Amarna period of Ahkenaten the dominant type used, as opposed to low relief. It had been used before, but mainly for large reliefs on external walls, and for hieroglyphs and cartouches. The image is made by cutting the relief sculpture itself into a apartment surface. In a simpler form the images are unremarkably mostly linear in nature, like hieroglyphs, but in most cases the figure itself is in low relief, but set within a sunken area shaped round the image, so that the relief never rises across the original flat surface. In some cases the figures and other elements are in a very low relief that does non rise to the original surface, but others are modeled more fully, with some areas rise to the original surface. This method minimizes the piece of work removing the background, while assuasive normal relief modelling.

The technique is most successful with potent sunlight to emphasise the outlines and forms by shadow, as no attempt was fabricated to soften the edge of the sunk expanse, leaving a face up at a right-angle to the surface all around it. Some reliefs, especially funerary monuments with heads or busts from aboriginal Rome and later on Western art, exit a "frame" at the original level around the edge of the relief, or place a caput in a hemispherical recess in the block (run across Roman case in gallery). Though essentially very similar to Egyptian sunk relief, just with a background infinite at the lower level around the figure, the term would not unremarkably be used of such works.

It is also used for carving letters (typically om mani padme hum) in the mani stones of Tibetan Buddhism.

Counter-relief [edit]

Sunk relief technique is not to be confused with "counter-relief" or intaglio as seen on engraved gem seals—where an prototype is fully modeled in a "negative" manner. The prototype goes into the surface, then that when impressed on wax it gives an impression in normal relief. Still many engraved gems were carved in cameo or normal relief.

A few very late Hellenistic monumental carvings in Egypt use full "negative" modelling equally though on a jewel seal, perhaps as sculptors trained in the Greek tradition attempted to use traditional Egyptian conventions.^[12]

Modest objects [edit]

Modest reliefs accept been carved in various materials, notably ivory, forest, and wax. Reliefs are often found in decorative arts such every bit ceramics and metalwork; these are less often described as "reliefs" than as "in relief". Small statuary reliefs are often in the form of "plaques" or plaquettes, which may be set in furniture or framed, or just kept as they are, a popular course for European collectors, especially in the Renaissance.

Diverse modelling techniques are used, such repoussé ("pushed-dorsum") in metalwork, where a thin metal plate is shaped from behind using diverse metal or woods punches, producing a relief paradigm. Casting has besides been widely used in bronze and other metals. Casting and repoussé are often used in concert in to speed up production and add together greater item to the final relief. In stone, as well as engraved gems, larger hardstone carvings in semi-precious stones have been highly prestigious since aboriginal times in many Eurasian cultures. Reliefs in wax were produced at least from the Renaissance.

Carved ivory reliefs have been used since ancient times, and considering the cloth, though expensive, cannot usually be reused, they have a relatively high survival charge per unit, and for example consular diptychs represent a big proportion of the survivals of portable secular art from Late Artifact. In the Gothic menses the carving of ivory reliefs became a considerable luxury manufacture in Paris and other centres. Likewise equally pocket-size diptychs and triptychs with densely packed religious scenes, usually from the New Attestation, secular objects, commonly in a lower relief, were as well produced.

These were frequently round mirror-cases, combs, handles, and other pocket-size items, simply included a few larger caskets like the Casket with Scenes of Romances (Walters 71264) in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United states. Originally they were very frequently painted in bright colours. Reliefs can be impressed past stamps onto clay, or the dirt pressed into a mould begetting the blueprint, every bit was usual with the mass-produced terra sigillata of Aboriginal Roman pottery. Decorative reliefs in plaster or stucco may be much larger; this form of architectural ornament is found in many styles of interiors in the mail-Renaissance W, and in Islamic architecture.

Gallery [edit]

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  Sunk relief as low relief within a sunk outline, from the Luxor Temple in Egypt, carved in very hard granite

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  low relief within a sunk outline, linear sunk relief in the hieroglyphs, and high relief (correct), from Luxor

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  Depression to mid-relief, 9th century, Borobudur. The temple has one,460 panels of reliefs narrating Buddhist scriptures.

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  Roman funerary relief with frame at original level, just non sunk relief

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  Side view of mid-relief: Madonna and Child, marble of c.  1500/1510 by an unknown north Italian sculptor

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  Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, 1897, Boston, combining free-standing elements with high and low relief

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  A relatively mod high relief (depicting shipbuilding) in Bishopsgate, London. Notation that some elements jut out of the frame of the image.

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Reliefs by modern artists [edit]

Mod artists such equally Paul Gauguin, Ernst Barlach, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore up to Ewald Matare have created reliefs, in contemporary art, for case, Ingo Kühl should be mentioned.

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  Ernst Barlach, Angel of Promise, 1933, Saint Mary parish church in Güstrow

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  Henry Moore, Relief No. 1, 1959, Statuary, at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

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  Ewald Matare, main portal with bronze door, 1958–1960, church St. Lambertus, Düsseldorf

Notable reliefs [edit]

Notable examples of monumental reliefs include:

• Ancient Arab republic of egypt: Near Egyptian temples, e.g. the Temple of Karnak
• Assyria: A famous drove is in the British Museum, Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
• Aboriginal Persia: Persepolis, and rock-face reliefs at Naqsh-e Rustam and Naqsh-e Rajab
• Aboriginal Greece: The Parthenon Marbles, Bassae Frieze, Great Chantry of Pergamon, Ludovisi Throne
• Mesopotamia: Ishtar Gate of Babylon
• Ancient Rome: Ara Pacis, Trajan's Column, Column of Marcus Aurelius, triumphal arches, Portonaccio sarcophagus
• Medieval Europe: Many cathedrals and other churches, such equally Chartres Cathedral and Bourges Cathedral
• India: Sanchi, base of the Lion Capital of Asoka, the rock-cut Elephanta Caves and Ellora Caves, Khajuraho temples, Mahabalipuram with the Descent of the Ganges, and many South Indian temples, Unakoti group of sculptures (bas-relief) at Kailashahar, Unakoti District, Tripura, India
• South-Eastern asia: Borobodur in Coffee, Angkor Wat in Cambodia,
• Glyphs, Mayan stelae and other reliefs of the Maya and Aztec civilizations
• United States: Stone Mountain, Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, Boston, Mount Rushmore National Memorial
• UK: Base of operations panels of Nelson'southward Column, Frieze of Parnassus

Smaller-scale reliefs:

• Ivory: Nimrud ivories from much of the Near East, Late Antique Consular diptychs, the Byzantine Harbaville Triptych and Veroli Casket, the Anglo-Saxon Franks Casket, Cloisters Cross.
• Silver: Warren Cup, Gundestrup cauldron, Mildenhall Treasure, Berthouville Treasure, Missorium of Theodosius I, Lomellini Ewer and Basin.
• Gilt: Berlin Golden Hat, Bimaran casket, Panagyurishte Treasure
• Glass: Portland Vase, Lycurgus Cup

See also [edit]

• Rock relief
• Multidimensional art
• Pargetting – English exterior plaster reliefs
• Relief press – a different concept
• Repoussé and chasing – a metalworking technique

Notes [edit]

1. ^ "Relief". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 2012-05-31. Retrieved 2012-05-31 .
2. ^ In modernistic English language, just "high relief"; alto-rilievo was used in the 18th century and a little beyond, while haut-relief has surprisingly found a niche, restricted to archaeological writing, in contempo decades subsequently it was used in under-translated French texts nigh prehistoric cave fine art, and copied even by English language writers. Its utilise is to be deprecated.
3. ^ Murray, Peter & Linda, Penguin Lexicon of Fine art & Artists, London, 1989. p. 348, Relief; bas-relief remained common in English until the mid 20th century.
4. ^ For example Avery in Grove Art Online, whose long article on "Relief sculpture" barely mentions or defines them, except for sunk relief.
5. ^ Murray, 1989, op.cit.
6. ^ Avery, six
7. ^ Avery, vii
8. ^ Avery, ii and iii
9. ^ Boissoneault, Lorraine (Baronial 22, 2017). "What Will Happen to Rock Mountain, America's Largest Confederate Memorial?". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on August 22, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
10. ^ "50 things you might not know about Rock Mount Park". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. July x, 2018. Archived from the original on November xi, 2020. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
11. ^ McKay, Rich (July 3, 2020). "The world's largest Confederate Monument faces renewed calls for removal". Reuters. Archived from the original on July 3, 2020. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
12. ^ Barasch, Moshe, Visual Syncretism: A Case Study, pp. 39–43 in Budick, Stanford & Iser, Wolfgang, eds., The Translatability of cultures: figurations of the space betwixt, Stanford University Printing, 1996, ISBN 0-8047-2561-6 (ISBN 978-0-8047-2561-3).
13. ^ Kleiner, Fred Southward.; Mamiya, Christin J. (2006). Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective – Book ane (12th ed.). Belmont, California, The states: Thomson Wadsworth. pp. twenty–21. ISBN0-495-00479-0.

References [edit]

• Avery, Charles, in "Relief sculpture". Grove Art Online. Retrieved April 7, 2011.

External links [edit]

• Heilbrunn Timeline of Fine art History, "American Relief Sculpture", Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, New York City.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Reliefs.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relief

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