bas reliefs

Examples of bas reliefs in the following topics:

• Monumental Reliefs in Southeast Asia

  • In total, there are 2,672 individual bas-reliefs, 1,460 of which depict narratives from Buddhist lore, including the birth and life of the Buddha.
  • The Khmer of Cambodia were also renowned for their monumental bas-reliefs, which usually took narrative form, depicting stories from history and mythology.
  • The most famous example of Khmer bas-relief sculpture is undoubtedly at the 12th-century Hindu temple of Angkor Wat, which has 13,000 square meters of narrative bas-reliefs on the walls of its outer gallery.
  • This episode from Hindu mythology is depicted in bas-relief on the south of the east wall of Angkor Wat's third enclosure.
  • The bas relief of 8th century Borobudur depicted the palace scene of King and Queen accompanied by their subjects.

• Fon

  • Each of the palaces at the Royal Palaces of Abomey contained elaborate bas-reliefs (noundidė in Fon) providing a record of the king's accomplishments.
  • Each king had his own palace within the palace complex and within the outer walls of their personal palace was a series of clay reliefs designed specific to that king.
  • These were not solely designed for royalty and chiefs, temples, and other important buildings had similar reliefs.
  • In addition to the royal depictions in the reliefs, royal members were depicted in power sculptures known as bocio which incorporated mixed materials (including metal, wood, beads, cloth, fur, feathers, and bone) onto a base forming a standing figure.
  • In addition, the cloth appliqué of Dahomey depicted royalty often in similar zoomorphic representation and dealt with matters similar to the reliefs, often the kings leading during warfare.

• Architecture of the Maya

  • Within the Palace, there are numerous sculptures and bas-relief carvings that have been conserved.
  • This small masonry building has detailed bas relief carving on the inner walls, including a center figure that has carving under his chin that resembles facial hair.

• Neo-Babylonia

  • It was constructed in 575 BC by order of Nebuchadnezzar II, using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-relief dragons and aurochs.
  • An aurochs above a flower ribbon with missing tiles filled in (Ishtar Gate bas-relief, housed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin).

• Sculpture in Southeast Asia

  • This civilization left an impressive artistic legacy consisting primarily of sandstone sculptures, both in the round and in relief.
  • The Cham created freestanding sandstone sculptures in the round, as well as high and bas-relief carvings of sandstone.
  • In general, they appear to have preferred sculpting in relief, and they excelled especially at sculpture in high relief.
  • The Birth of Brahma, sandstone relief, My Son, Vietnam, 7th century
  • The relief sculpture shows the birth of the Hindu god Brahma from a lotus growing from the navel of Vishnu.

• Carving

  • Carved sculpture can be "freestanding", where the viewer can walk around the work and view it from all sides, or created in "relief", where the primary form's surface is raised above the surrounding material.
  • Relief, from the Latin "relevo" meaning "to raise", is a sculptural technique in which the surface of stone or wood is carved away, thereby causing the foreground image to appear to be raised.
  • It is a very stable form of sculpture due to the fact that reliefs are often made in stone, and the fact that it remains a solid piece.
  • There are different degrees of relief depending on the height of the sculpted form from the background.
  • The range includes high relief (where more than 50% of the depth is shown), mid-relief, and low or bas-relief (in which the image remains a very shallow extension from its surroundings).

• Art of the Persian Empire

  • The gold rhyton below, which bears a stylized ram's head in relief, dates to the Achaemenid period.
  • Better known than ceremonial rhyta is the Oxus Treasure, a 180-piece trove of reliefs, figurines, jewelry, and coins made of gold and silver.
  • A large bas relief representing Cyrus the Great as a four-winged guardian figure proclaims his rank and ethnicity as an Achaemenidian in three languages.
  • This stylized relief of Cyrus borrows from the Egyptian style of depicting the human body and proclaims the king's ethnicity and rank in three languages.

• Architecture in Mesopotamia

  • Colored stone and bas reliefs replaced paint as decoration.
  • Art produced under the reigns of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BCE), Sargon II (722-705 BCE), and Ashurbanipal (668-627 BCE) inform us that reliefs evolved from simple and vibrant to naturalistic and restrained over this time span.
  • By the time of the Assyrian empire, palaces were decorated with narrative reliefs on the walls and outfitted with their own gates.
  • Elsewhere on the gate and its connecting walls were painted floral motifs and bas reliefs of animals that were sacred to Ishtar, the goddess of fertility and war.
  • The photograph below shows the detail of a relief of a bull from the gate’s wall.

• Artifacts of Assyria

  • While reliefs comprise the majority of what archaeologists have found, existing sculptures in the round shed light on Assyrian numerical systems and politics.
  • These monumental sculptures usually appeared in relief form in pairs at major entrances to cities, palaces, or fortresses.
  • Each side consists of five registers of bas reliefs that celebrate the achievements of King Shalmaneser III (reigned 858-824 BCE).

• Victory Columns under the Nervan-Antonines

  • It stands on top of a large pedestal carved with a relief of the spoils of war.
  • The visual narration is depicted in low relief (bas relief) and relies little on naturalistic detail, preferring to show some scenes in multiple perspectives and with figures on different ground lines.
  • It is uncertain how much of the column's relief Romans would have been able to see.
  • The relief carvings are high enough to protrude from the sides and be visible when viewing the non-decursio side of the pedestal.
  • A relief frieze encircles the column and depicts Marcus Aurelius's military campaigns at the end of his life in Germania.