How Is a Relief Different Than a 3d Sculpture in Art

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 listing of the earth's top 100
iii-D artworks, by the best sculptors
in the history of art, see:
Greatest Sculptures Ever.

GUIDE TO PLASTIC ARTS
See: Fine art of Sculpture.

What is Relief Sculpture? Definition and Meaning

In plastic fine 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 loftier the figures projection from the groundwork. Likewise known equally relievo, relief sculpture is a combination of the two-dimensional pictorial arts and the three-dimensional sculptural arts. Thus a relief, like a motion picture, is dependent on a background surface and its composition must be extended in a airplane in social club to be visible. Yet at the same time a relief besides has a degree of real three-dimensionality, but similar a proper sculpture.

Reliefs tend to exist more than common than freestanding sculpture for a number of reasons. Outset, a relief sculpture can portray a far wider range of subjects than a statue because of its economy of resources. For case, a battle scene, that, if sculpted in the circular, would require a huge amount of infinite and material, can be rendered much more easily in relief. Second, because a relief is fastened to its background surface, issues of weight and physical rest do not arise - dissimilar in statues and other freestanding sculptures where weight and balance tin 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.

Best SCULPTORS
For a list of the globe'due south near
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
Pentelic, Carrara, Parian marbles.
Bronze Sculpture
Lost-wax casting/sandcasting.
Wood Carving
Softwoods and hardwoods.

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; (two) high relief (alto-relievo, or alto-relief), where the sculpture projects at to the lowest degree half or more of its natural circumference from the groundwork, and may in parts exist wholly disengaged from the ground, thus approximating sculpture in the circular. [Sculptors may likewise employ eye-relief (mezzo-relievo), a style which falls roughly between the loftier and low forms]; (iii) sunken relief, (incised, coelanaglyphic or intaglio relief), where the carving is sunk below the level of the surrounding surface and is contained 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 constitute almost exclusively in ancient Egyptian art, although information technology has also been used in some beautiful modest ivory reliefs from Republic of 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 specially associated with the 15th century sculptor Donatello. This statiacciato pattern 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 evidence up the most frail lines and changes of texture.

Reliefs may be abstract in style as well equally representational or figurative. Abstract reliefs, both geometric and curvilinear, accept been establish in many different cultures, including those of Ancient Hellenic republic, the Celts, Mexico, the Vikings, and Islam. Representational and figurative relief sculpture is strongly associated with the Greeks, the Romans, Romanesque and Gothic compages, 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 case 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 express by the background airplane. This background airplane is non used to create a receding perspective simply rather equally a finite bulletproof barrier in front of which the figures exist. By comparison, Renaissance relief sculpture makes total use of perspective, which is a pictorial method of representing 3-D spatial relationships on a ii-D surface, and thus has much in common with fine art painting.

Prehistoric Relief Sculpture

The earliest reliefs date dorsum to the cave art of the Upper Paleolithic, effectually 25,000 BCE. The oldest relief sculptures in France are: the Venus of Laussel (23,000 BCE), a limestone bas-relief of a female effigy, found in the Dordogne; the rare Abri du Poisson Cavern Salmon Carving (23,000 BCE) at Les Eyzies de Tayac, Perigord; the Solutrean Roc-de-Sers Cavern 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 French republic at that place are the badly preserved clay reliefs in the Kapova Cave in Russia. Other reliefs have been constitute incised on numerous megaliths from the Neolithic era.

Annotation About Sculpture Appreciation
To learn how to evaluate high-relief and low-relief sculpture, see: How to Appreciate Sculpture. For later works, delight see: How to Appreciate Mod 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 up of lions and dragons from the Ishtar Gate, Babylon, executed in low relief. See also the alabaster carvings of king of beasts-hunts featuring Ashurnasirpal Ii and Ashurbanipal, a typical instance of Assyrian art (c.1500-612 BCE). Egyptian sculptors tended to use sunken relief. Figures are depicted continuing sideways and are contained inside a sharply insized outline: see for example the many sunken reliefs at the Temple of Karnak in Egypt. Depression reliefs were especially mutual in Chinese sculpture. For a guide to the principles backside 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 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 Aboriginal Rome). See also: early Christian art (150 onwards).

During the menstruum 600-1100, abstruse reliefs appeared in numerous cultures around the globe, as disparate as the Mixtec culture in Mexico, the Norse/Viking culture and Islamic environments across the Middle E.

Medieval Relief Sculpture

In Europe during the flow 1000-1200, Christian art by and large took the form of compages, notably the edifice plan of cathedrals, abbeys and churches financed by the Christian Church of Rome. Although statuary was a feature of this religious art, the master accent 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 likewise Romanesque Sculpture.) The Gothic menstruum maintained this tradition though Gothic sculptors typically preferred a college relief, in accordance with the renewed interest in statuary that characterized the fourteenth century. (See also Gothic sculpture.)

Annotation: 1 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, Bharat. The temple was congenital 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 statuary doors that Lorenzo Ghiberti made for the Baptistry of Florence Cathedral. In order to exploit the total potential for perspective, figures in the foreground of the limerick 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 arroyo by adding textural contrasts betwixt crude and smooth surfaces. Thus in general Renaissance relief sculptors tended to make maximum apply of the pictorial possibilities of the 2-D background, although at that place were exceptions. Two such trends were: the frail and low reliefs in marble and terracotta of Desiderio da Settignano, and the more robust and sculptural relief way employed by Michelangelo. (For more data, see Renaissance sculptors.)

The beginning Fontainebleau Schoolhouse (c.1530-70), a style of French Mannerist art named later on the royal palace of the French Rex 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 course fantastic shapes. Key artists at Fontainebleau included Francesco Primaticcio (1504-70) and Rosso Fiorentino (1494-1540).

Baroque relief sculptors further adult the pictorial arroyo used in Renaissance art, often on a very large scale. Sometimes their big relief compositions actually became a kind of painting in marble, as exemplified by Ecstasy of Saint Teresa past Bernini, which included figures carved about fully in the round but encased in a marble altar. (Come across likewise Bizarre sculptors and Neoclassical sculptors.) A few exponents of Neoclassical sculpture, like Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen, temporarily revived the utilize 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 piece of work features high relief granite portraits of American Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. (Come across besides 20th Century sculptors.)

Famous Relief Sculptures

These include:

• Venus of Laussel (c.23,000 BCE) Dordogne (low relief)
• Salmon of the Abri du Poisson Cave (c.23,000 BCE) Dordogne (low relief)
• Tuc d'Audoubert Bison (c.13,500 BCE) Ariege, French republic (low relief)
• Gobekli Tepe Brute reliefs and other megalithic fine art (c.9000 BCE)
• Parthenon Reliefs (c.446-430 BCE), Acropolis Museum (high relief)
• Temple of Apollo Epikourios, E Frieze (c.420 BCE) (loftier relief)
• Mausoleum of Harlicarnassus, Amazon Frieze (c.350 BCE) (high relief)
• Pergamon Chantry of Zeus (c.180 BCE) Pergamon Museum Berlin (high relief)
• Ara Pacis Augustae (c.10 BCE) (Tellus Relief Panel) (loftier relief)
• Trajan's Cavalcade, Rome (106-113 CE) (spiral/helical relief)
• Arch of Constantine, Rome (315 CE) (high relief)
• The Last Judgment, Saint-Lazare Cathedral (1145) Gislebertus (high relief)
• Angkor Wat Khmer Temple, Cambodia (c.1150) (low relief)
• Banquet of Herod Baptismal Font (1425) Donatello (high relief)
• Doors of Paradise, Baptistery, Florence (1452) Ghiberti (high/depression relief)
• Ecstasy of St Teresa, Cornaro Chapel (1652) Bernini (high relief)
• St Cecilia (1600) Stefano Maderno, Rome (high relief)
• St Veronica (1639) St Peter's Basilica, past Francesco Mochi (high relief)
• La Marseillaise (1836) by Francois Rude, Nice (loftier relief)
• Gates of Hell (1880-1917) by Auguste Rodin: Rodin Museum Philadelphia
• Mount Rushmore National Memorial (1927-41) Due south Dakota (loftier relief)
• Confederacy Monument Rock Mountain (1958-seventy) WK Hancock (high relief)

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Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/sculpture/relief.htm

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