bas-relief

American  

[bah-ri-leef, bas-, bah-ri-leef, bas-] / ˌbɑ rɪˈlif, ˌbæs-, ˈbɑ rɪˌlif, ˈbæs- /

noun

1. relief sculpture in which the figures project slightly from the background.

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bas-relief British  

/ ˈbæs-, ˈbɑːrɪˌliːf, ˌbɑːrɪˈliːf, ˌbæs- /

noun

1. Also called (Italian): basso rilievo.  sculpture in low relief, in which the forms project slightly from the background but no part is completely detached from it

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bas-relief Cultural  

1. A kind of carving or sculpture in which the figures are raised a few inches from a flat background to give a three-dimensional effect. The term is French for “low relief.”

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Etymology

Origin of bas-relief

1660–70; < French, on the model of Italian bassorilievo. Cf. basso-relievo, base ², relief ²

Example Sentences

Man Ray also built ingenious collages, bas-relief constructions and elegant chess sets.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 27, 2025

As The Times reported in 1989, the giant bas-relief figures on the venue’s exterior are of the Maya god Huitzilopochtli seated on a symbolic earth monster.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 14, 2025

These people were the unwitting models for his bas-relief sculpture of a Black Jesus breaking bread with 12 Black apostles.

From Washington Post • Apr. 2, 2023

They include an imposing obelisk outside Rome's Olympic stadium that bears his name, and a bas-relief of Mussolini in the modernist Eur district that the fascists built to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their march.

From Reuters • Oct. 26, 2022

Veins stood out in bas-relief on the necks of both men but neither arm moved more than two or three degrees to the right or left of the fulcrum point.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy