My shopping cart
Your cart is currently empty.
Continue ShoppingBackground:
Since ancient times, artists, especially sculptors have been doing carvings on stones and rocks. In this form of art, artists carve on the stone, and carve out an image out of it. The image so produced is slightly raised above the background. This type of sculpture where the image protrudes outside the background is called Relief.
Relief Wall Art in Chengdu Culture Park, Chengdu, China
What is Relief?
Relief also called relievo, (from Italian word relievare, which means “to raise”), is an ancient sculptural technique, which has been practised since time immemorial. This relief sculptor may be done on stone or wood. Traditionally, in relief sculpting, the artist imagines an image in that piece of wood or stone and starts carving the flat solid surface. While doing so, he chisels away the ‘extra’ and ‘unwanted’ material. This is quite a time-consuming process. But, when the work is complete, it gives the impression that the characters are raised and give the impression that they are ‘coming out’ of the background. This type of art is called relief art.
Sometimes the artists use another technique to give depth to the artwork. They make art and then add depth and texture to the flat surface giving it a three-dimensional (3D) look. Many different materials can be used to achieve this 3D effect.
So, a relief is like a picture with a hint of three-dimensionality, just like a proper sculpture.
Types of Relief Art:
There are different types of relief sculpture, which depends on the degree of projection, height or detachment of the sculpted form from the solid background. The different types are relief art paintings are given below. Often the Italian and French terms are also used along with English terms to denote the different types of relief art:
Advantages of Relief Sculpture:
Conclusion:
Relief is a sculptural technique which involves a considerable amount of cutting away from a flat surface of stone, metal or wood. Thus, the relief sculpture gives an impression of the sculpted material raised above a plane background. It’s less fragile and more firmly fixed than a sculpture in the round. Reliefs are classified according to the height of the figures projecting from the background. In a low relief, the forms project just slightly from the background whereas in high relief, the designs are at quite a height from the background and at parts can be completely detached from the ground. Middle reliefs fall roughly between the high and low forms.