bas-relief, bass-relief
(ˌbɑːsrɪˈliːf, -æ-, ˌbɑː-rɪˈliːf)
Forms: 7–8 basse relieve, base relief, bas-relieve, 8–9 bass-relief, bas-relief.
[a. F. bas-relief, ad. It. basso-rilievo, low relief. Cf. basso-relievo.]
1. Low relief; sculpture or carved work in which the figures project less than one half of their true proportions from the surface on which they are carved.
| 1696 Phillips, Base Relief..emboss'd work. 1706 Basso Relievo. Bass or Low Relief..when the work is low, flat, or but a little raised. a 1711 Ken Hymnotheo Wks. 1721 III. 192 Upon the Frontispiece..In bas-relieve the Story was impress'd, Of Lazarus and Dives. 1755 Johnson, Bass-relief. 1843 Prescott Mexico iv. i. (1864) 205 Two statues of that monarch..cut in bas-relief in the porphyry. |
| attrib. 1884 Harper's Mag. Feb. 350/1 The lithic forms must give place to a more bass-relief treatment. |
2. concr. A sculpture or carving in low relief.
| 1667 Oldenburg in Phil. Trans. II. 420 Excellent Pictures and Basse Relieves. 1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) II. 58 The basrelief..of James I. on horseback. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. I. 196 Bas-reliefs the figures of which almost step and struggle out of the marble. |