BAS-RELIEF
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BAS-RELIEF
(It. for hollow relief; Fr., reliej-en-creux) is a method
of concave sculpture in which the highest part or
outline is on a level with the surface, while the
roundness is considerably below it. Cavo-rilievo
was practised chiefly by the Egj'ptians whose hollow
reliefs are kno^«i by the Greek term Koilanaglyphs.
Relief is the form of sculpture that comes nearest
to painting, both having composition, perspective,
and the play of light and shadow. Relief would
seem to have much in common with drawing, though
in reality less importance attaches to line than to the
modelling of contour and to the true and effective
rendering of chiaroscuro. The human form is un-
doubtedly the proper object of relief, which appears
to be particularly suited to the representation of
numerous figures in action. In the Greek and
Roman classic reliefs these figures are usually in
processional order, engaged in historic or military
events, or in the ceremonial of worship. Relief is
existed before the introduction of sculpture in the
round, or when only rude figures of the deities had
been attempted. The Babylonians, Assyrians, and
Hittites practised it contemporaneously with sculp-
ture in the round. The Egyptians, though they em-
ployed a kind of low relief, especially on the interiors
of buildings, made a still greater use of Koilanaglyphs.
The Greeks, conceiving relief sculpture in its purely
plastic sense, achieved the greatest masterj' of the art.
With them it was u.sed both as an ornament and as an
integral part of the plan when allied with architecture.
Distinguishing strictly between high and low relief,
they used the former between the triglyphs, and in
the tympana of the temples, and the latter in friezes,
tombstones, etc. Certain fixed principles governed
the Greek relief: the spaces were adequately filled,
the backgrounds never carved, and it was a rule
that all heads should be at the same height from
the base, whether the figures sat, rode, or stood {Iso-
k ,-. ^ .
The Annunciation, Andrea Della Robbia. Hospital of the Innocents, Florence
well suited, also, to the portrayal of series of scenes,
as in the bronze doors of various Italian baptisteries
illustrating the Old and the New Testament. Fig-
ures and objects in relief are generally worked out in
the same material as the background, though there
are exceptions to this rule in Greek art, and in the
decorative work of the Chinese and Japanese. In
the larger reliefs marble, bronze, and terra-cotta are
used exclusively; while in smaller works the precious
metals and stones, ivory, stucco, enamel, wood, etc.,
predominate. The rehefs of the Egyptians and
Assyrians, not highly plastic, were made more
effective by the introduction of strong colours. The
early Greeks also made use of polychroray, as in-
stanced in the metope relief in the Museum of
Palermo. In Gothic art and in the Renaissance it
was the custom to tint wood, terra-cotta, and stucco,
but not marble or stone. Relief is one of the earliest
forms of sculpture practised, and probably originated
with the stone-cutters of prehistoric days, though
cLay and wood are supposed to have been the earliest
materials employed, owing to greater facility in
moulding and carving them.
There is reason to believe that relief sculpture
kephaleia). In the Hellenistic period a more pic-
turesque and dramatic form of composition prevailed,
and the backgroimds were carved in pictorial style.
With the Etruscans relief was applied mainly in the
artistic handicrafts. In Rome it frequently de-
generated into a pictorial mode in which several
planes were employed, but examples are still extant
that are highly classic, e. g. the groups of the Arch
of Titus, the continuous winding reliefs of tlie ColuniD
of Trajan, imperial sarcophagi (in the Vatican), and
reliefs of the Capitol Museum, Rome. The Romans
no doubt owed their finest reliefs to the Greek artists
they harboured and employed upon themes taken
from the history of Rome.
The Christian Era inaugvirated what might be mis- taken for a new art, but the change was in subject more than in mode, for all the early examples show a great similarity to antique models in form, pose, and drapery. Christian relief appears mainly in the sarcophagi with their Biblical, Apostohc, or symbolic subjects: Daniel in the lions' den, Moses striking water from the rock, the adoration of the Magi, the raising of Lazarus, the Good Shepherd. Heathen mytlis are also used, invested with a new signifi-
