BASSRELIEF

From Agepedia

BASSRELIEF (Ital. basso relievo); synonymous with relief; figures, more or less elevated, in stone, plaster, clay or metal, upon a flat surface. Bassrelief properly signifies the least elevation ; hautrelief or alto relievo, the highest, in which the figares project half of their apparent circumference from the background. The ancient artists, and the modern who have followed their principles, generally used, in their reliefs, only a single ground ; but Bernini, Algardi, Angelo, Rossi, and several other modern artists, worked in several; that is, their objects appear on several backgrounds. Among the ancients, we find bassreliefs in the pediments and friezes of temples and houses, on altars, triumphal arches, monuments (e. g., sarcophagi), on shields, vases, and other implements composed of hard and strong materials. The bassreliefs found by von Brondstedt, Cockerel, &c, in the temple of Apollo at Phigalia, and sold to the British museum for £15,000 sterling, are celebrated, as are also those on the column of Trajan. Among the famous modern bassreliefs are those of Bandurli, Ghiberti and Lucca della Robbia, at Florence. Some of the finest bassreliefs existing are by Canova and Thorwaldsen. Boss's STRAITS; a channel, which separates N. Holland from Van Diemen's Land; 120 miles broad; Ion. 147° 30' E.; lat. 40° S.