Types of sculpture
1.Relief
1.High relief
2.Low relief / bas relief
3.Sunken relief
2.Full round
1.Relief
projections from a flat
background; viewed
from the front; usually
attached to a wall
High relief – the figure is
almost completely carved
from its surface. Only a little
of the structure is attached
to the plane or base.
Athena Battling Alkyoneos, Detail of the Gigantomachy Freize from the Altar of Zeus
(Pergamon, Turkey, c. 175 BC).
Portal of the Last
Judgement, Notre-Dame,
Paris
Portal of the Last Judgement, Notre-Dame, Paris
Low relief – also called bas
relief; the form barely
extends past the base.
Parthenon frieze, Greece approx 447 BC
Persian soldiers, Grand Staircase of the Adapana, Persepolis approx 520 BC
Bas-relief in Persepolis - a symbol ZoroastrianNowruz - in day of a spring equinox power
of eternally fighting bull (personifying the moon), and a lion (personifying the Sun, the
bulls crescent horn resembling the moon,the lions mane, representing the sun.
Sunken relief – largely restricted
to Ancient Egypt after the Amarna
period. Used before the period for
hieroglyphs and cartouches.
The image is made by cutting into the
surface rather than out of it.
PharaohAkhenaten with his wife Nefertiti and daughters.
Thoth, god of knowledge and writing
2. Full Round
Also called “in the round” or
free standing. It is sculpture
that is surrounded on all
sides, except the base, with
space; meant to be viewed
from any angle.