high relief

Examples of high relief in the following topics:

• 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.

• Art in the Second Millennium B.C.E.

  • The Assyrians, on the other hand, developed a style of large and exquisitely detailed narrative reliefs in painted stone or alabaster.
  • Intended for palaces, these reliefs depict royal activities such as battles or hunting.
  • The Burney Relief is a Mesopotamian terracotta plaque in high relief of the Old-Babylonian period, depicting a winged, nude, goddess-like figure with bird's talons, flanked by owls, and perched upon supine lions.
  • The relief is dated between 1800 and 1750 BCE.
  • Apart from its distinctive iconography, the piece 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.

• 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

  • In addition to reliefs of animals, reliefs of reed bundles, sacred objects associated with Inanna, adorn the exterior of the trough.
  • The figures are depicted in high relief to amplify the dramatic significance of the scene.
  • Babylonian culture somewhat preferred sculpture in the round to reliefs.
  • The Burney Relief is a Mesopotamian terra cotta plaque in high relief of the Old-Babylonian period, depicting a winged, nude, goddess-like figure with bird's talons, flanked by owls, and perched upon supine lions.
  • 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.

• The Antonines

  • The relief carvings are noticeably deep; the figures protrude from the sides and are visible when viewing the non-decursio side of the pedestal.
  • The style of this relief is noticeably different.
  • The figures on the decursio relief are stockier and in a style more commonly seen in the plebeian art of this time.
  • A relief frieze encircles the column and depicts his military campaigns at the end of his life in Germania.
  • The new style, high relief, and military emphasis demonstrates the changing priorities and social-political attitudes of the period.

• Victory Columns under the Nervan-Antonines

  • It stands on top of a large pedestal carved with a relief of the spoils of war.
  • The visual narration is depicted in low relief (bas relief) and relies little on naturalistic detail, preferring to show some scenes in multiple perspectives and with figures on different ground lines.
  • It is uncertain how much of the column's relief Romans would have been able to see.
  • The relief carvings are high enough to protrude from the sides and be visible when viewing the non-decursio side of the pedestal.
  • The new style, high relief, and military emphasis demonstrates the changing priorities and social-political attitudes of the period.

• Stelae in the Greek High Classical Period

  • Large, relief-carved stelae became the new funerary markers in Greece during the High Classical period.
  • The jewelry is now absent because it was only a painted detail, as opposed to carved in relief.
  • The Grave Stele of Dexileos (390 BCE) in the Kerameikos Cemetery of Athens is another demonstration of how stele reliefs reflect the sculpture style and motifs of the period.
  • This stele recalls the carved relief of Athenian horsemen from the Ionic frieze of the Parthenon.

• Monumental Reliefs in Southeast Asia

  • 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.
  • It was greatly influenced by Indian styles and techniques, and it generally portrayed religious themes with high iconographic precision.
  • 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 reliefs have a diverse range of themes.
  • Detail of carved relief from Borobudur, depicting a figure from the Buddhist pantheon.

• 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.
  • Because granite is prone to flaking, few pieces of individual sculptures reached the high levels of quality seen in previous centuries.

• Art and Architecture of the Achaemenid Empire

  • The Achaemenid Persians were particularly skilled at constructing complex frieze reliefs; crafting precious metals into jewelry, vessels, statuettes, and a myriad of other shapes; glazed brick masonry; decorating palaces; and creating gardens.
  • Located about 70 kilometers northeast of the modern Iranian city of Shiraz, Persepolis is a wide, elevated complex 40 feet high, 100 feet wide, and a third of a mile long.
  • It consists of multiple halls, corridors, a wide terrace, and a symmetrical double stairway providing access to the terrace, decorated with reliefs depicting scenes from nature and daily life.
  • It famously features the exquisite "Treasure Reliefs"—friezes emphasizing the divine presence and power of the king and depicting scenes from all across his vast empire and his army of Persian immortals.
  • This attention to diversity also appears in the reliefs from the hall of Apadana, in which leaders and dignitaries from various provinces appear in regional fashions beneath a frieze punctuated by male lamassus adopted from previous Mesopotamian cultures.