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relief sculpture in which the figures project slightly from the background.
Historical Examples

Miss Ross described her beauty graphically enough when she said it was that of an old Greek bas-relief.
Contraband G. J. Whyte-Melville

When she felt a bas-relief of dancing girls she asked, “Where are the singers?”
Story of My Life Helen Keller

Among the figures of this bas-relief, twelve are recognized by their lofty stature and sitting posture as those of divinities.
Lippincott’s Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, No. 23, February, 1873, Vol. XI. No. 23. Various

Here and there was an Italian cabinet surmounted with Delft, and here and there a bas-relief.
The Moon and Sixpence W. Somerset Maugham

Its dome, as it appears in a bas-relief, must have rivalled that of St. Peter’s at Rome; but no trace of it now remains.
Beacon Lights of History, Volume III John Lord

This fragment contains a bas-relief representing the execution of a martyr.
Pagan and Christian Rome Rodolfo Lanciani

This band is to be seen in bas-relief at Chichen-Itza, inthe mural paintings, and on the head of the statue of Chaacmol.
Vestiges of the Mayas Augustus Le Plongeon

They were holding hands in an attitude suggestive of a bas-relief.
All Roads Lead to Calvary Jerome K. Jerome

Suddenly I receive a Titian, by the post, to hang on my wall—a Greek bas-relief to stick over my chimney-piece.
The Portrait of a Lady Henry James

I regret that I have not time to make you a sketch of a bas-relief.
The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 1, August 1850 Various

noun
sculpture in low relief, in which the forms project slightly from the background but no part is completely detached from it Also called (Italian) basso rilievo
n.

1660s, from French bas-relief, a loan-translation of Italian basso-rilievo “low relief, raised work.”
bas-relief [(bah ruh-leef)]

A kind of carving or sculpture in which the figures are raised a few inches from a flat background to give a three-dimensional effect. The term is French for “low relief.”