Different Types of Sculpture

Types of Sculptures

Relief or relievo rilievo, - is a sculptural technique. The term relief is

from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane.

- According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Heilbrunn Time line of Art History, Relief sculpture is "sculpture that projects in vary degrees from a two-dimensional background." Relief sculpture is among the oldest forms of sculpted art.

Different Degrees of Relief

Bas-relief or low relief- has a very low degree of relief from the

base.

- is a type of sculpture that has less depth to the faces and figures than they actually have, when measured proportionately (to scale). This technique retains the natural contours of the figures, and allows the work to be viewed from many angles without distortion of the figures themselves.

Example Of Bas-Relief/Low-Relief

High Relief- is where in general more than half the

mass of the sculpted figure projects from the background, indeed the most prominent elements of the composition, especially heads and limbs, are often completely undercut, detaching them from the field. The parts of the subject that are seen are normally depicted at their full depth, unlike low relief where the elements seen are "squashed" flatter. High-relief thus uses essentially the same style and techniques as free-standing sculpture, and in the case of a single figure gives largely the same view as a person standing directly in front of a free-standing statue would have. All cultures and periods in which large sculptures were created used this technique in monumental sculpture and architecture.

Example Of High Relief

Sunk Relief- Sunk or sunken relief is largely

restricted to the art of Ancient Egypt where it is very common, becoming after the Amarna period of Ahkenaten the dominant type used, as opposed to low relief. It had been used earlier, but mainly for large reliefs on external walls, and for hieroglyphs and cartouches. The image is made by cutting the relief sculpture itself into a flat surface. In a simpler form the images are usually mostly linear in nature, like hieroglyphs, but in most cases the figure itself is in low relief, but set within a sunken area shaped round the image, so that the relief never rises beyond the original flat surface.

Example Of Sunk Relief

Counter Relief- Sunk relief technique is not to be

confused with "counter-relief" or intaglio as seen on engraved gem seals — where an image is fully modeled in a "negative" manner. The image goes into the surface, so that when impressed on wax it gives an impression in normal relief.

Example of Counter Relief

Small objects- Small-scale reliefs have been carved in

various materials, notably ivory, wood, and wax. Reliefs are often found in decorative arts such as ceramics and metalwork; these are less often described as "reliefs" than as "in relief".

Example Of Small Objects

Types of Sculptures

Free Standing Sculpture

- also known as sculpture in-the-round, likely represents the form of sculpture most recognizable to modern people.

- is any work of sculpture which can be viewed from any angle around the pedestal. This kind of sculpture includes some of the most famous works of sculpture throughout time: the statuary works of the Greek, Roman, Medieval and Classical eras, including Michaelangelo's David.

Free Standing Sculptures

Types of Sculptures

Kinetic Sculpture

- is free-standing sculpture that moves, either by mechanical power or under the power of wind or water. Fountains are a form of kinetic sculpture, although in that special case the sculpture is not powered by the water but lives within the shapes and forms of the water as it arcs over and through the air.

Example Of Kinetic Sculpture

Types of Sculptures

Assemblage Sculpture- Another more modern form of sculpture is

known as Assemblage sculpture, which is sculpture pieced together from found or scavenged items that have little or no relationship to one another. Contemporary Art Dialogue's website defines assemblage art as "non-traditional sculpture, made from re-combining found objects. Some of these objects are junk from the streets." These pieced-together bits of castoff debris are arranged in an aesthetically pleasing shape to the artist and then presented to its audiences to provoke thought and reaction. Collages are a sort of two-dimensional representation of assemblage sculpture.

Example Of Assemblage Sculpture