Relief Sculpture
Art and History
Monday, September 13, 2010
A relief is a sculptured art work in
which figures are either carved into a
level plane or, more typically, the plane
is removed to create images sculpted on
its surface without completely
disconnecting them from the plane.
It is therefore not free-standing or in
the round, but usually has a
background from which the main
elements of the composition rise.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Types
Monday, September 13, 2010
Types
• Intaglio (sunken-relief), in which the
image is carved into the surface material.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Types
• Intaglio (sunken-relief), in which the
image is carved into the surface material.
• Bas-relief (low-relief), in which the
sculpture is raised only slightly from the
background surface
Monday, September 13, 2010
Types
• Intaglio (sunken-relief), in which the
image is carved into the surface material.
• Bas-relief (low-relief), in which the
sculpture is raised only slightly from the
background surface
• Alto-relievo (high-relief), in which part of
the sculpture is rendered in three
dimensions
Monday, September 13, 2010
Intaglio (sunken-relief)
Sunken-relief of Pharaoh Akhenaten with Nefertiti and their daughters
Monday, September 13, 2010
Intaglio (sunken-relief)
• This form is most
famously associated
with the art of
Ancient Egypt
Sunken-relief of Pharaoh Akhenaten with Nefertiti and their daughters
Monday, September 13, 2010
Intaglio (sunken-relief)
• This form is most
famously associated
with the art of
Ancient Egypt
• strong sunlight
results in heavy
shadows Sunken-relief of Pharaoh Akhenaten with Nefertiti and their daughters
Monday, September 13, 2010
Intaglio (sunken-relief)
• This form is most
famously associated
with the art of
Ancient Egypt
• strong sunlight
results in heavy
shadows Sunken-relief of Pharaoh Akhenaten with Nefertiti and their daughters
• used for hieroglyphics
and today used for
tombstones
Monday, September 13, 2010
Akhenaten
Edfu Temple, Edfu
Monday, September 13, 2010
Bas-relief (low-relief)
A Buddha bas relief carved onto the rock at Beopjusa Temple near Songnisan.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Bas-relief (low-relief)
• The material is
carved so that objects
project from a
background, almost
as though they are
trapped in the stone
A Buddha bas relief carved onto the rock at Beopjusa Temple near Songnisan.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Bas-relief (low-relief)
• The material is
carved so that objects
project from a
background, almost
as though they are
trapped in the stone
• It is a slight
projection from the
surface with no real
undercuts
A Buddha bas relief carved onto the rock at Beopjusa Temple near Songnisan.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Angkor Wat, Hindu temple, Cambodia
Close-up of carvings on a wall, Lincoln Boyhood
National Memorial, Indiana, USA
Bas Relief
Monday, September 13, 2010
Trajan’s Column
• Rome
• commemorates
Roman emperor
Trajan's victory in the
Dacian Wars,
completed 113 ACE
• has inspired many
victory columns
• artistically describes
the epic wars between
the Romans and
Dacians (101–102 and
105–106)
Monday, September 13, 2010
• 30 meter high column (+8
meter base)
• 17 perfectly fit marble drums
on which are sculpted from
bottom to top in a spiral of
panels
• here are one hundred and fifty-
five scenes, in which more than
twenty-five hundred figures
are represented, no less than
sixty of Trajan, himself
• Only eighteen scenes actually
depict battles; most show the
day-to-day activities of the
army.
Monday, September 13, 2010
• At the top was a statue of
the emperor in gilt bronze,
access to which was by a
spiral staircase
illuminated by a series of
slit windows cut into the
marble.
• The frieze is an invaluable
source of information for
archaeologists and
historians on Roman and
barbarian arms and
Monday, September 13, 2010
Alto-relievo (high-relief)
Lapith fighting a centaur. South Metope 31, Parthenon, ca. 447–433 BC.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Alto-relievo (high-relief)
• It is where the most
prominent elements
of the composition are
undercut
Lapith fighting a centaur. South Metope 31, Parthenon, ca. 447–433 BC.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Alto-relievo (high-relief)
• It is where the most
prominent elements
of the composition are
undercut
• More than 50% of the
work is percieved in
the round against the
background.
Lapith fighting a centaur. South Metope 31, Parthenon, ca. 447–433 BC.
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Parthenon
• When work began on
the Parthenon in 447
BC, the Athenian
Empire was at the
height of its power
• The metopes of the
Parthenon all 447-432 BCE
represented various
instances of the
struggle between the
forces of order and
justice, on the one
hand, and criminal
chaos on the other.
Monday, September 13, 2010
• The Parthenon itself replaced an older
temple of Athena,t hat was destroyed in
the Persian Invasion of 480 BCE
• There were seventy-two metopes carved
in high relief
• On 26 September 1687, an Ottoman Turk
ammunition dump (stock of gun powder)
inside the building was ignited by a
Venetian bombardment. The resulting
explosion severely damaged the
Parthenon and its sculptures.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Kailasa Temple, India c. 750 ACE.
Temple of Ramesses II, Abu Simbel
Volcanic Rock
It looks like a freestanding, multi-storeyed temple complex, but it was carved out
of one single rock, and covers an area double the size of Parthenon in Athens.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Temple of Ramesses II,
Abu Simbel
• Southern Egypt, in Nubia
• carved out of the
mountainside, 13th century
BCE
• 20 yrs to build
• Four colossal 20 meter
statues of the pharaoh with
the double Atef crown of It was dedicated to the gods Amun, Ra-Horakhty, and
Upper and Lower Egypt Ptah, as well as to the deified Rameses himself
decorate the facade of the The statue to the left of the entrance was damaged in an
temple earthquake, leaving only the lower part of the statue still
intact.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Kailasa Temple, India
• notable for its vertical
excavation—carvers
started at the top of the
original rock, and
excavated downward,
exhuming the temple out
of the existing rock.
• about 200,000 tons of
rocks was scooped out
over hundreds of years
• archeologists could
conclude that three types
of chisels were used
Monday, September 13, 2010
How did they do that?
•The three basic types of chisels remain the same:
• a point for roughing out the
stone
• tooth chisels (also called claw
tools) for shaping and modeling
the forms
• flat chisels for the finished
surfaces and details.
• Percussion tools for hitting -
such as mallets and toothed
hammers
Monday, September 13, 2010
Clay mock
up
Limstone
Monday, September 13, 2010
Steps!
• The first step is roughing out the
stone. This is where the majority
of the stone is removed and is
done with a heavy chisel made
for removing large amounts of
stone
• Then you try to accentuate
the stone. Make the low
points a lot lower while
leaving the high points high
(usually with a toothy
chisel.
Monday, September 13, 2010
• The flat chisel is used to help remove
the lines of the toothed chisel
• Use the rasp or riffler to bring out
smaller details.
• Sanding work with
course sand paper and
work your way to fine
• Polishing: oils, wax,etc.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010