or Relief, in sculpture, &c. is the projection or standing out of a figure which arises prominent from the ground or plane on which it is formed; whether that figure be cut with the chisel, moulded, or cast.

There are three kinds or degrees of relievo, viz. alto, basso, and demi-relievo. The alto-relievo, called also haut-relief, or high-relievo, is when the figure is formed after nature, and projects as much as the life. Bassorelievo, bas-relief, or low-relievo, is when the work is raised a little from the ground, as in medals, and the frontispieces of buildings; and particularly in the hitherto Relief, rics, festoons, foliages, and other ornaments of friezes. Demi-relief is when one half of the figure rises from the plane. When, in a bas-relief, there are parts that stand clear out, detached from the rest, the work is called a demi-bas-relief.

In architecture, the relievo or projection of the ornaments ought always to be proportioned to the magnitude of the building it adorns, and to the distance at which it is to be viewed.

Relief, in painting, is the degree of boldness with which the figures seem, at a due distance, to stand out from the ground of the painting.

The relievo depends much upon the depth of the shadow, and the strength of the light; or on the height of the different colours, bordering on one another; and particularly on the difference of the colour of the figure from that of the ground: thus, when the light is so disposed as to make the nearest parts of the figure advance, and is well diffused on the masses, yet insensibly diminishing, and terminating in a large spacious shadow, brought off insensibly, the relievo is said to be bold, and the chiaroscuro well understood.