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.

---

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

---

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.”

---

Etymology

Origin of bas-relief

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

Example Sentences

“Are there inlaid wood floors inside, and a grand gallery around a central hall, and—and bas-relief statues set along the walls?”

From Literature

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

From The Wall Street Journal

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

Responding to Wright’s evocation of the four elements in the living room — and the room’s expansive view stretching to the Pacific — Silverman adds foraged clay, seaweed, salt, driftwood and shells to the glazes of his ceramics, two of which flank Wright’s famous concrete bas-relief hearth.

From Los Angeles Times

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

From Washington Post