Editing Relief (section)

===Low relief or bas-relief===
[[File:PupienusSest.jpg|thumb|left|Low-relief on Roman [[sestertius]], 238&nbsp;AD]]
A low relief  is a projecting image with a shallow overall depth, for example used on coins, on which all images are in low relief. In the lowest reliefs the relative depth of the elements shown is completely distorted, and if seen from the side the image makes no sense, but from the front the small variations in depth register as a three-dimensional image. Other versions distort depth much less.  The term comes from the [[Italian language|Italian]] {{lang|it|basso rilievo}} via the French {{lang|fr|bas-relief}} ({{IPA|fr|baʁəljɛf}}), both meaning "low relief".  The former is now a very old-fashioned term in English, and the latter term is becoming so.

Low relief is a technique which requires less work than high relief, and is therefore cheaper to produce, as less of the background needs to be removed in a carving, or less modelling is required. In the [[art of Ancient Egypt]], [[Assyrian palace relief]]s, and other [[ancient Near East]]ern and Asian cultures, a consistent very low relief was commonly used for the whole composition. These images would usually be painted after carving, which helped define the forms; today the paint has worn off in the great majority of surviving examples, but minute, invisible remains of paint can usually be discovered through chemical means.

[[File:Rock Relief of Iddin-Sin, King of Simurrum.jpg|thumb|upright|A low-relief dating to {{Circa|2000 BC}}, from the kingdom of [[Simurrum]], modern [[Iraq]]]]
The [[Ishtar Gate]] of [[Babylon]], now in Berlin, has low reliefs of large animals formed from moulded bricks, glazed in colour. Plaster, which made the technique far easier, was widely used in Egypt and the [[Near East]] from antiquity into Islamic times (latterly for architectural decoration, as at the [[Alhambra]]), Rome, and Europe from at least the Renaissance, as well as probably elsewhere. However, it needs very good conditions to survive long in unmaintained buildings – Roman decorative plasterwork is mainly known from [[Pompeii]] and other sites buried by ash from [[Mount Vesuvius]]. Low relief was relatively rare in Western [[medieval art]], but may be found, for example in wooden figures or scenes on the insides of the folding wings of multi-panel [[altarpiece]]s.

The revival of low relief, which was seen as a classical style, begins early in the Renaissance; the [[Tempio Malatestiano]] in [[Rimini]], a pioneering classicist building, designed by [[Leon Battista Alberti]] around 1450, uses low reliefs by [[Agostino di Duccio]] inside and on the external walls. Since the Renaissance plaster has been very widely used for indoor [[ornament (art)|ornamental]] work such as [[cornice]]s and ceilings, but in the 16th century it was used for large figures (many also using high relief) at the [[Chateau of Fontainebleau]], which were imitated more crudely elsewhere, for example in the Elizabethan [[Hardwick Hall]].

Shallow-relief, in Italian {{lang|it|rilievo [[stiacciato]]}} or {{lang|it|rilievo schicciato}} ("squashed relief"), is a very shallow relief, which merges into engraving in places, and can be hard to read in photographs. It is often used for the background areas of compositions with the main elements in low-relief, but its use over a whole (usually rather small) piece was effectively invented and perfected by the Italian Renaissance sculptor [[Donatello]].<ref>Avery, vi</ref>

In later Western art, until a 20th-century revival, low relief was used mostly for smaller works or combined with higher relief to convey a sense of distance, or to give depth to the composition, especially for scenes with many figures and a landscape or architectural background, in the same way that lighter colours are used for the same purpose in painting. Thus figures in the foreground are sculpted in high-relief, those in the background in low-relief. Low relief may use any medium or technique of sculpture, [[stone carving]] and [[metal casting]] being most common. Large architectural compositions all in low relief saw a revival in the 20th century, being popular on buildings in [[Art Deco]] and related styles, which borrowed from the ancient low reliefs now available in museums.<ref>Avery, vii</ref> Some sculptors, including [[Eric Gill]], have adopted the "squashed" depth of low relief in works that are actually free-standing.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Amarna Neues 05.JPG|"Blocked-out" unfinished low relief of [[Ahkenaten]] and [[Nefertiti]]; unfinished Greek and Persian high-reliefs show the same method of beginning a work.
File:Nowruz Zoroastrian.jpg|Persian low or [[bas-relief]] in [[Persepolis]] – a symbol of [[Zoroastrism|Zoroastrian]] Nowruz – at the spring [[equinox]] the power of the bull (personifying [[Earth]]) and lion (personifying the [[Sun]]) are equal.
File:Sculpted reliefs depicting Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king, hunting lions, gypsum hall relief from the North Palace of Nineveh (Irak), c. 645-635 BC, British Museum (16722131531).jpg|[[Assyrian palace relief|Assyrian low relief]], ''[[Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal]]'', North Palace, [[Nineveh]]
File:Atropos.jpg|[[Atropos]] cutting the thread of life. Modern Greek low relief.
File:Assunzione della verginje, donatello.jpg|[[Donatello]]'s ''[[rilievo stiacciato]]'' or shallow relief of the "Assumption of the Virgin" on [[Tomb of Cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci|a tomb]], 1420s
File:Henri Lebrand 2.jpg|French 20th-century low relief
</gallery>