bas-relief

Low relief sculpture, in which the design projects only very slightly from the background, as on a coin. Masters of the technique include Donatello and Desiderio da Settignano.

Bas-relief is a method of sculpting which entails carving or etching away the surface of a flat piece of stone or metal. For example, if a stone slab is two inches thick before sculpting begins, the non-image (background) area may be one inch thick when the art work has been completed, and the image area will vary from one inch to two inches, depending on the final image. In a few major works of art, the actual human figure may have "near natural" depth, but still, the background is greatly flattened and is only a few inches behind the rounded figures. The advantage of the natural contour of the figures allows the work to be viewed from many angles without distortion of the figures themselves, but the background depth is only suggested. A good rule of thumb, to classify a work, might be that the "bas" technique always has less depth behind the faces or figures than the actual faces or figures would have, when measured. In "alto" technique, the depth behind the figures may equal or exceed the depth of the faces or figures, which are usually natural in depth.

Composite works

Occasionally, free standing sculptures are set in front of a relief sculpture to deepen the scene.

Historical Context

Bas relief has existed in all civilizations creating stone sculpture from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China, to classical, Middle Ages, and renaissance periods in European arts.

Use in architecture

It is most commonly used for the architectural adornment of building surfaces, both inside and outside, where the stone is part of the building, rather than as a free-standing piece of art to be hung on a wall.

Classic bas-relief	Late Roman bas-relief	Palmyra bas-relief figure 2nd Cent.
Hellenistic influenced Indian Buddhist bas-relief	Madonna and child	Greek bas-relief, girl with a dove