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

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

The music room to the left of the foyer has parquet flooring, leaded-glass windows and a floor-to-ceiling mirror surrounded with gilded bas-relief sculptures that are repeated in plaques above the indoor fishpond.

From Washington Post • Aug. 19, 2022

Ruins of Mesopotamian ziggurats and bas-relief sculpture, as well as Egyptian pyramids, testify to complex civilizations.

From "The Annotated Mona Lisa" by Carol Strickland and John Boswell