Bas-relief
Bas-relief[1] is a type of relief (sculpture) that has less depth to the faces and figures than they actually have, when measured proportionately (to scale). This technique keeps the natural shapes of the figures and allows the work to be seen from many angles without twisting the figures themselves.
There is a continuation of the bas-relief technique into the next category, altorilievo, or high relief. High relief makes deeper images than bas-relief. Instead of shallow backgrounds that are a few inches (cm) deep at most, they can be up to several feet (a few meters) deep in altorilievo.
Some of the best examples of bas-relief are the Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs, which are housed at the British Museum. The attention to detail and appearance of the lions moving make them stand out, especially for the time period they were made in.
Images
These images are made to be seen in 3D with the use of colored glasses and might not appear correctly without them.
Madonna and Child, less shallow relief
Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs are very shallow
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Bas-relief Media
Side view of Lorenzo Ghiberti's cast gilt-bronze Gates of Paradise at the Florence Baptistery in Florence, Italy, combining high-relief main figures with backgrounds mostly in low relief.
A face of the high-relief Frieze of Parnassus round the base of the Albert Memorial in London. Most of the heads and many feet are completely undercut, but the torsos are "engaged" with the surface behind
A common mixture of high and low relief, in the Roman Ara Pacis, placed to be seen from below. Low relief background
Low-relief on Roman sestertius, 238 AD
Low relief, Banteay Srei, Cambodia; Ravana shaking Mount Kailasa, the Abode of Siva
High-relief deities at Khajuraho, India
Very high relief at the Monument to the Independence of Brazil in São Paulo; derivative representation of Pedro Américo's 1888 painting Independence or Death.
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