relief sculpture

Examples of relief sculpture in the following topics:

• Monumental Reliefs in Southeast Asia

  • Sculpture and architecture were intimately connected in Southeast Asia, and monumental reliefs were used to decorate the walls of buildings.
  • Relief is a sculptural technique which gives the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane.
  • Reliefs depicting figures that are at least life-size or bigger or are attached to monuments of some sort are termed monumental reliefs by art historians, thus distinguishing them from small metal or ivory reliefs, portable sculptures, and diptychs.
  • Most of ancient Southeast Asian relief sculpture was done in bas-relief, where the projecting images have shallow overall depth, although the kingdom of Champa in southern and central Vietnam excelled in haut-relief sculpture, which was marked by much greater depth and undercut areas.
  • The most famous example of Khmer bas-relief sculpture is undoubtedly at the 12th-century Hindu temple of Angkor Wat, which has 13,000 square meters of narrative bas-reliefs on the walls of its outer gallery.

• Sculpture in Southeast Asia

  • This civilization left an impressive artistic legacy consisting primarily of sandstone sculptures, both in the round and in relief.
  • The Cham created freestanding sandstone sculptures in the round, as well as high and bas-relief carvings of sandstone.
  • In general, they appear to have preferred sculpting in relief, and they excelled especially at sculpture in high relief.
  • The Birth of Brahma, sandstone relief, My Son, Vietnam, 7th century
  • The relief sculpture shows the birth of the Hindu god Brahma from a lotus growing from the navel of Vishnu.

• Sculpture in the Vijayanagar Empire

  • Vijayanagar sculpture can most commonly be seen in the reliefs, pillars, and monolithic statues of temples.
  • The mingling of South Indian styles resulted in a richness not seen in earlier centuries, including a focus on reliefs in addition to sculpture that surpassed that seen previously in India.
  • Preferred for its durability, local hard granite was the building material of choice for architecture; however, soapstone, which was soft and easily carved, was commonly used for reliefs and sculptures.
  • Sculpture was integrally linked with architecture in the creation of Vijayanagar temples.
  • Explain the key traits inherent to the sculpture of the Vijayanagar Empire

• Italian Sculpture in the Baroque Period

  • Baroque sculpture dominated Italy in the 1600s and was characterized by sculpture in the round.
  • Baroque sculpture is associated with the Baroque cultural movement in 17th century Europe.
  • Baroque sculpture often had multiple ideal viewing angles and reflected a general continuation of the Renaissance's move away from relief to sculpture created in the round.
  • A great deal of Baroque sculpture added extra-sculptural elements; for example, concealed lighting, water fountains, or fused sculpture and architecture that created a transformative experience for the viewer.
  • Bernini's sculptural output was immense and varied.

• Sculpture of the New Kingdom

  • While reliefs and sculptures in the round continued to be painted, the skin tones of male and female figures was now the same value of brown.
  • Other deities are frequently shown in paintings and reliefs.
  • Sunken relief was widely used.
  • Like previous works, faces on reliefs continued to be shown exclusively in profile.
  • A relief of a royal couple in the Armana style.

• Carving

  • Carved sculpture can be "freestanding", where the viewer can walk around the work and view it from all sides, or created in "relief", where the primary form's surface is raised above the surrounding material.
  • Relief, from the Latin "relevo" meaning "to raise", is a sculptural technique in which the surface of stone or wood is carved away, thereby causing the foreground image to appear to be raised.
  • It is a very stable form of sculpture due to the fact that reliefs are often made in stone, and the fact that it remains a solid piece.
  • There are different degrees of relief depending on the height of the sculpted form from the background.
  • The range includes high relief (where more than 50% of the depth is shown), mid-relief, and low or bas-relief (in which the image remains a very shallow extension from its surroundings).

• Sculpture in Mesopotamia

  • Sculptural forms include humans, animals, and cylinder seals with cuneiform writing and imagery in the round or as reliefs.
  • In addition to reliefs of animals, reliefs of reed bundles, sacred objects associated with Inanna, adorn the exterior of the trough.
  • Like most sculptures produced during the time, the sculpture was originally painted in an attempt to make it look lifelike.
  • Babylonian culture somewhat preferred sculpture in the round to reliefs.
  • Apart from its distinctive iconography, the sculpture is noted for its high relief and relatively large size, which suggests that is was used as a cult relief, which makes it a very rare survival from the period.

• Modern Sculpture

  • Rodin is credited with ushering in a new approach and subject matter to the creation of sculpture.
  • Sculptural movements that developed as a result of Modernism include the following:
  • The Gates of Hell is a group of sculptures depicting scenes of physical and psychological turmoil from Dante's Inferno in high relief .
  • Many of Rodin's most well-known sculptures started as designs for this piece.
  • The Thinker is a bronze sculpture on marble pedestal by Auguste Rodin, whose first cast, of 1902.

• Sculpture of the Aztecs

  • Aztec sculpture often took the form of striking carvings of Aztec gods or mythical creatures, and it was expressed through ceramics, architecture, freestanding three-dimensional stone works, and relief work.
  • A great deal of Aztec sculpture incorporated the skull motif; today this is known in Mexico as "skull art."
  • A unique and versatile form of sculpture was the carved mirror.
  • One of the most well known Aztec sculptures is the Calendar Stone.
  • This sculpture is currently held in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City.

• Wiligelmo and Other Forms of Architecture

  • A significant motif of Romanesque design is the spiral, a form applied to both plant motifs and drapery in Romanesque sculpture.
  • He was the first sculptor in Italy who started again to produce large size sculptures and signed his work.
  • It is a masterpiece of Romanesque sculpture.
  • A relief from St Trophime, Arles, showing King Herod and the Three Kings.
  • Discuss the sculptural works of Wiligelmo as they relate to the architecture and sculpture of the time.