Relief
Relief, or relievo rilievo, is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. What is actually performed when a relief is cut in from a flat surface of stone or wood is a lowering of the field, leaving the unsculpted parts seemingly raised. The technique involves considerable chiselling away of the background, which is a time-consuming exercise with little artistic effect if the lowered background is left plain, as is often the case. On the other hand, a relief saves forming the rear of a subject, and is less fragile and more securely fixed than a sculpture in the round, especially one of a standing figure where the ankles are a potential weak point, especially in stone. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mache the form can be just added to or raised up from the background, and monumental bronze reliefs are made by casting.
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Famous quotes containing the word relief:
“Well, what the hell has he ever done for Colorado! Take it down and put my picture up there!”
—Administration in the State of Colo, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“It is said that he once had a sore toe that so annoyed him that he went to the woodpile and chopped it off with an axe, quoting the Scripture, ‘If thy foot offend thee, cut it off.’”
—For the State of Rhode Island, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“I now leave Charleston, the seat of Satan, dissipation, and folly.”
—Administration in the State of Sout, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)