Editing Relief (section)

===Sunk relief===
[[File:Akhenaten, Nefertiri and three daughers beneath the Aten - Neues Museum - Berlin - Germany 2017 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|A sunk-relief depiction of Pharaoh [[Akhenaten]] with his wife [[Nefertiti]] and daughters. The main background has not been removed, merely that in the immediate vicinity of the sculpted form. Note how strong shadows are needed to define the image.]]

Sunk or sunken relief is largely restricted to the [[art of Ancient Egypt]] where it is very common, becoming after the [[Amarna period]] of [[Ahkenaten]] the dominant type used, as opposed to low relief. It had been used earlier, but mainly for large reliefs on external walls, and for [[hieroglyph]]s and [[cartouche]]s. The image is made by cutting the relief sculpture itself into a flat surface to enhance the impression of three-dimensionality.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wang |first=Meili |last2=Chang |first2=Jian |last3=Kerber |first3=Jens |last4=Zhang |first4=Jian J. |date=2012-11-01 |title=A framework for digital sunken relief generation based on 3D geometric models |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00371-011-0663-y |journal=The Visual Computer |language=en |volume=28 |issue=11 |pages=1127–1137 |doi=10.1007/s00371-011-0663-y |issn=1432-2315}}</ref> In a simpler form, the images are usually mostly linear in nature, like hieroglyphs, but in most cases the figure itself is in low relief, but set within a sunken area shaped round the image, so that the relief never rises beyond the original flat surface. In some cases the figures and other elements are in a very low relief that does not rise to the original surface, but others are modeled more fully, with some areas rising to the original surface. This method minimizes the work removing the background, while allowing normal relief modelling.

The technique is most successful with strong sunlight to emphasise the outlines and forms by shadow, as no attempt was made to soften the edge of the sunk area, leaving a face at a right-angle to the surface all around it. Some reliefs, especially funerary monuments with heads or busts from ancient Rome and later Western art, leave a "frame" at the original level around the edge of the relief, or place a head in a hemispherical recess in the block (see Roman example in gallery). Though essentially very similar to Egyptian sunk relief, but with a background space at the lower level around the figure, the term would not normally be used of such works.

It is also used for carving letters (typically ''[[om mani padme hum]]'') in the [[mani stone]]s of [[Tibetan Buddhism]].