Talk:Relief

disscuss the importance of direct experience of sculptures in terms of their physical presence and their relationship to the site.

Expert opinion on utility of each type of relief requested

Could somebody who has considerable expertise in sculpting or in the history of sculpture add the basic explanation of why reliefs are done? My belief/guess/understanding is that the greater the depth of a relief, the more expensive, but that all are cheaper than a free-standing sculpture. But I suspect there are issues related to making a relief fit in a larger context, of style, and of ... I don't know. Resistance to vandalism?? Being unobtrusive? Not stressing the strength of available material?

67.169.127.166 (talk) 20:32, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

A relief is a one-sided sculpture, and usually forms part of a building or some similar bulky object like the base of a statue, or even a piece of furniture. Yes, higher relief takes more work, and is more expensive. Hope that helps. Johnbod (talk) 20:38, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Merges from bas-relief, alto-rilievo and Sunken-relief

• Support as nom I think all four short stubs should be merged, not least because the division drawn between the two main sub-types, high and low, varies considerably. If not merged, alto-rilievo should be renamed high-relief. Johnbod (talk) 15:06, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

I don't know how to fix it but the word "intaglio" in this article literally redirects to itself. Particularly unhelpful b/c when you search for the "intaglio" you get a disambiguation page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.16.22.239 (talk) 23:20, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Fixed now. Ceoil (talk) 23:47, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Stone Mountain

If Stone Mountain is the largest bas relief sculpture in the world, then why does it receive so little attention in this article?

Low relief in eastern orthodox icons

Although they generally avoid anything approaching full sculpture, some icons of the eastern church (or their coverings) have a very detailed low relief covering, often made of silver. Mention? -- 92.226.93.64 (talk) 19:32, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

This type of relief is not distinctively Orthodox, & it would be a bit WP:UNDUE while the article remains a short summary of the different types. Of course Byzantine relief, in ivory etc, is often pretty high. That's my view anyway. Johnbod (talk) 01:56, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

Artistic effect

The following sentence is an opinion, not a fact: "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." Therefore, it should be edited.Amadeus webern (talk) 18:51, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Excess trimmed

I've reduced over-large image sizes and chopped the galleries a bit. Commons is over yonder... Vsmith (talk) 13:18, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

And I've reverted all of it. The subject is complicated and important and the images actually carefully chosen. You clearly don't edit visual art subjects much. Johnbod (talk) 13:36, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Yeah - "clearly don't..." and you like to insult with your snobbery ... sorry 'bout that. The excess size and "carefully chosen" number of images is quite absurd and a problem for those with slow connections. Gah ... Vsmith (talk) 14:16, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Hi Vsmit, I also think the current image sizes are appropriate, given the intricacies and subtleties or the works depicted. Employing larger image sizes is standard practice on wiki when describing what are often highly detailed smaller works; its not about snobbery, its about utility and common sense, IMO. I would agree with your position re image size if this were most other articles, but not on this particular one. Ceoil (talk) 19:05, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Oh, so for some unknown reason oversize images are needed here - seems the norm be: "click the image and view the detail on the image file" hmm... Vsmith (talk) 22:52, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

The reason is not unknown; it has been spelled out for you a few times now! Ceoil (talk) 23:01, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Oh and also - bolding synonyms or redirects target to the parent article is common practice. PS, you do good work here, don't want to fall out over this. Ceoil (talk) 19:14, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Eh ... nah seems WP:OWN be at play here. Sorry 'bout that. Vsmith (talk) 22:52, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Nah, you're doing WIERD STUFF like reducing galleries below the default size (which frankly ought not to be possible, as there's never a good reason) and debolding redirects, which just isn't helpful. Pointing objectors (and you clearly anticipated some) to the 50 million images on Commons, and the several thousand in the Category:Reliefs is exceptionally unhelpful to readers - I haven't seen that crap argument used for years. Johnbod (talk) 23:10, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Indeed, and are verging on the point of edit warring by now. Ceoil (talk) 23:40, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Seems I've upset the owners here ... so I'll exit the scene and let them play. Vsmith (talk) 23:43, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Probably wise, absent a semblance of counter arguments. Ceoil (talk) 23:58, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

And the page owners watch like hawks ... so all must be supersized. Aw well ... Vsmith (talk) 21:39, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

Some editors who know about visual arts, yes. I see we covered all the issues 2 years ago. Johnbod (talk) 21:42, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

Low relief in English

The current section on "low reliefs" state that the current English terminology is outdated. If so, should this be merged to another section? It seems odd to point out that this termonology is rare at the beginning of the section, though this is not my field and I don't know if it might be impacted by other factors! --Marx01 ^{Tell me about it} 09:06, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

evidently needs rephrasing, but it says"A low relief or bas-relief ("low relief", French pronunciation: ​[baʁəljɛf], from the Italian basso rilievo; this is now a rather old-fashioned term in English) ...". That is, basso rilievo is now a rather old-fashioned term in English, as in fact bas-relief is becoming. Johnbod (talk) 16:05, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

The sentence today is: "The former [i.e. basso relievo] is now a very old-fashioned term in English, and the latter term [i.e. bas-relief] is becoming so." I see no cite and I think it's dubious. Google ngrams doesn't show low relief winning bigly. I intend to remove in a week or so. Any other opinions? Peter Gulutzan (talk) 18:26, 2 June 2025 (UTC)

Please don't! Current museum practice is fairly clear - most of the books will be tourist guides etc, often retreads or reprints from decades ago. The modern English general reader is no longer expected to understand "bas", & the term has become problemmatic. Johnbod (talk) 02:24, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Johnbod, I see that the current wording is due to your insertion and hope you someday will add a cite. However, I will not remove since you said "Please don't!" Peter Gulutzan (talk) 12:49, 9 June 2025 (UTC)

The article provides no distinction between mid-relief and low relief

This problem shows clearly in the fact that the only picture in the section mid-relief has the caption “Low relief…”. Unfortunately, the term is not just “somewhat imprecisely defined”, as the section concedes, but it offers no distinction whatsoever from a low relief. So, from what the article provides, it's impossible to decide even what its own example is. Is that distinction even practical? Our French sister article only distinguishes between “bas” and “haut”. ◅ Sebastian Helm 🗨 07:11, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

The article text: "Mid-relief, "half-relief" or mezzo-rilievo is somewhat imprecisely defined, and the term is not often used in English, the works usually being described as low relief instead. The typical traditional definition is that only up to half of the subject projects, and no elements are undercut or fully disengaged from the background field. The depth of the elements shown is normally somewhat distorted." is as clear as possible for a vague term litrtle used in English, but I have swopped pics there. Johnbod (talk) 22:27, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Use of terms 'sculpting' and 'carving'

Please contribute at Talk:Engraved gem#Use of terms 'sculpting' and 'carving'. Arminden (talk) 08:37, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Please see that discussion for context on recent changes to the lead. -- Avocado (talk) 09:44, 4 June 2026 (UTC)