BASSO - RELIEVO, (Italian ; Bas-relief, French,) in sculpture, is the representation of figures projecting from a back ground, so as to give relief. It is a general term, com prehending three distinct species of sculpture. Low relief; sometimes also called basso-•elievo, is that in which no part of the sculpture is detached from the back ground : high relief, or alto-relievo, is that in which the grosser parts are only attached, while the smaller parts are free: mean-relief, or mezzo-•elievo, is a term which some use for a kind of sculpture between the two. .1)lezzo-•elievo is distinguished from alto by having no part entirely disconnected from the plane surtlice, and from basso-•acy() in having the parts most remote from the back ground, most relieved, whereas the latter has such parts least relieved. In the former the outline is less, in the latter more apparent than the forms within it.
These terms are of modern date, and probably invented in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Greeks denominated relieve, or low-relief, by the term anaglypta (Pliny, lib. :;3, c. 11,) and alto-relievo was distinguished by the word toreuticeu, or rounded, (Pliny, lib. 31, c. 5,) although this term was occasionally applied to any kind of relief. As architecture is highly indebted to sculpture for some of its most elegant decorations, it will he proper to give some account in this place of the basso-relievos of the ancients.
In point of antiquity, the Egyptian stands first: a know ledge of their sculpture will be best obtained from the writ ings of those who have actually visited and surveyed their ruined edifices; in conformity with this, the following description from Denon will, perhaps, be acceptable :—" The hieroglyphics, which are executed in three different manners, are also of three species, and may take their date from as many periods. From the examination of the different edifices which have fallen under toy eye, I imagine that the most ancient of these characters are only simple outlines, cut in without relief, and very deep; the next in point of age, and which produce the least effect, are simply in a very shallow relief'; and the third, which seem to belong to a more improved age, and are executed at. Tentyra more perfectly than in any other part of Egypt, are in relief' below the level of the outline. By the side of the figures which compose
these tabular pieces of sculpture, there are some hieroglyphics which appear to be only the explanation of the subjects at large, and in which the f wins are more simplified, so as to give a more rapid inscription, or a kind of short-hand, if we may apply the term to sculpture.
A fourth kind of hieroglyphics appears to he devoted simply to ornament : we have improperly termed it, I know not why. the arabesque. It was adopted by the Greeks, and, in the age of Augustus, was introduced among the Romans; and in the fifteenth century, during the restoration of the arts, it was transmitted by them to us, as a timtastic decoration, the peculiar taste of which formed all its merit. Among the Egyptians, who employed these ornaments with equal taste, every object had a meaning or moral, and at the same time formed the decoration of the friezes, cornices, and surbasements of their architecture. I have discovered at Tentyra the representations of the peristyles of temples in caryatides, which are executed in painting at the baths of Titus, and have been copied by Raphael, and which we con stantly ape in our rooms. without suspecting that the Egyptians have given us the first models of them." Again, in describing the temple of Latopolis, Denon says. "The hieroglyphics in relief, with which it is covered within and without, are executed with great care; they contain, among other subjects, a zodiac, and large figures men with croco diles' heads: the capitals, though all different, have a very fine effect; and as an additional proof that the Egyptians borrowed nothing from other people, we may remark, that they have taken all the ornaments, of which those capitals are composed, from the productions of their own country, such as the lotus, the palm-tree, the vine, the rush, &c., &c." The most ancient and must simple kind of basso-relievos, used by the Egyptians, were cut by recessing the grounds as much as the projection of the figures, so that the surround ing, surthces, by forming a kind of border, both threw a shade upon the figures and defended them from injury, which they were liable to, as the granite out of which they were cut was of a very brittle nature; by this means much labour was saved in the execution.