Bas-relief Sculpture Research Articles

Cybele, Atargatis, or Allāt? A Surprising Tomb Artifact from Petra’s North Ridge

The complex Nabataean “Götterwelt”1 incorporates deities from both their own tradition as well as imports from the larger Mediterranean and peninsular Arabian context. In 2014, a small naiskos depicting a possible imported deity was discovered in a tomb containing at minimum eight individuals, located on the northern edge of the ancient city of Petra. Geochemical investigation of the individuals buried in the tomb using strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (δ18O) isotopes indicated only locally born individuals were interred within the tomb. The goddess depicted in the bas-relief sculpture is wearing a tunic and covered by a cloak and is flanked by two lions. Comparanda from the eastern Mediterranean showing similar iconography of the naiskos point to the goddess’s identity as Cybele, Atargatis, or Allāt, with most evidence suggesting Allāt. However, the emic perceptions of and ritual praxis involving this object and the goddess beyond its mortuary inclusion remain unclear. Therefore, regardless of the identification of the goddess it venerates, this portable naiskos served an important mortuary purpose for an individual locally born in the Petra region.

A new Aurignacian engraving from Abri Blanchard, France: Implications for understanding Aurignacian graphic expression in Western and Central Europe

In the excitement of the widely publicized new finds of Aurignacian art from Chauvet, from the Swabian Jura and from as far afield as Pestera Coliboaia in Romania, it has almost been forgotten that a rich corpus of Aurignacian wall painting, engraving and bas-relief sculpture had been recognized and studied before World War I in the Vézère Valley of SW France. Scientific knowledge of the chronological and cultural context of that early-discovered graphic record has been limited by the crude archaeological methods of that pioneering era, and the loss and dispersal of many of the works discovered. In 2011, we launched new excavations and a re-analysis of one of the key sites for such early discoveries, the collapsed rock shelter of Abri Blanchard. In 2012, we discovered in situ a limestone slab engraved with a complex composition combining an aurochs and dozens of aligned punctuations.This new find, recovered by modern methods and dated by molecular filtration and Hydroxyproline 14C, provides new information on the context and dating of Aurignacian graphic imagery in SW France and its relationship to that of other regions. The support is not a fragment of collapsed shelter ceiling and is situated in the midst of quotidian occupational debris. The image shows significant technical and thematic similarities to Chauvet that are reinforced by our reanalysis of engraved slabs from the older excavations at Blanchard. The aligned punctuations find their counterparts at Chauvet, in the south German sites and on several other objects from Blanchard and surrounding Aurignacian sites. In sum, we argue that dispersing Aurignacian groups show a broad commonality in graphic expression against which a certain number of more regionalized characteristics stand out, a pattern that fits well with social geography models that focus on the material construction of identity at regional, group and individual levels.

Ink-and-ray

We present a new approach for generating global illumination renderings of hand-drawn characters using only a small set of simple annotations. Our system exploits the concept of bas-relief sculptures, making it possible to generate 3D proxies suitable for rendering without requiring side-views or extensive user input. We formulate an optimization process that automatically constructs approximate geometry sufficient to evoke the impression of a consistent 3D shape. The resulting renders provide the richer stylization capabilities of 3D global illumination while still retaining the 2D hand-drawn look-and-feel. We demonstrate our approach on a varied set of hand-drawn images and animations, showing that even in comparison to ground-truth renderings of full 3D objects, our bas-relief approximation is able to produce convincing global illumination effects, including self-shadowing, glossy reflections, and diffuse color bleeding.

Recasting the National Narrative: Postcolonial Pastiche and the New Sierra Leone Peace and Cultural Monument

In February 2011, as Sierra Leone prepared to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its independence, a new national monument was opened to the public at the very center of Freetown. Actually, this was the second formal opening of the monument: the first had taken place twelve months earlier, on a newly instituted annual “Armed Forces Day,” when President Ernest Bai Koroma officially unveiled it before members of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF). In the period between these two unveilings, the banner over its entrance gates, which originally bore the name “Monument in Remembrance of Our Fallen Heroes and Heroines,” was replaced with another that reads “Sierra Leone Peace and Cultural Monument.” In this way—enunciatively at least—a military war memorial was transformed into a civilian monument promoting peaceful coexistence through a shared national culture and history (Fig. 1). A year in the making, and then another year “under wraps” while it was transferred to civilian management, the monument had attracted a great deal of attention from passers-by, who marvelled at the gigantic cement sculptures that took form (and then seemed to languish) behind guarded fences. Photographing the monument, even through the iron railings around its perimeter, was strictly prohibited. Alas, now that it has finally been opened to the public, the passers-by appear to have lost interest, no doubt put off by the advertised entrance fees: between Le500 and Le2,000 for children, Le5,000 for adults, and Le10,000 for non-nationals. Impressive though this colorful cement fantasia may be, with over 75% of Sierra Leone’s population currently surviving on less than $2 a day (currently about Le9,000) (United Nations 2009), it is hardly surprising that few would consider spending what little cash they have on something so ... “symbolic”? Already the paint is peeling from the cement statues and basrelief sculptures that visually narrate this particular iteration of Sierra Leone’s national history. And yet, despite its seemingly questionable value to many Freetownians, the monument represents a fascinating assemblage through which to reflect upon how public art—and public space—is being used (or at least sanctioned) by the State to promote political agendas and forge a shared national consciousness in this West African society still coming to terms with the profound divisiveness of its recent civil war.

Imagining Alternative Visions of Justice: An Exploration of the Controversy Surrounding Stirling Lee’s Depictions of Justitia in Nineteenth-Century Liverpool

In recent years there has been a burgeoning interest in the relationship between law, art and politics. New work in the field encourages us to explore the ways in which art can pose a threat to the supposed rationality of modern law by appealing to imagination and emotion. This article explores these general themes with reference to a specific controversy about a series of bas relief sculptures depicting Justitia which were placed on the side of what was arguably the most spectacular law court to be built in England in the nineteenth century. Although this episode has been explored by art historians, hardly any attention has been drawn to what the episode reveals about the political work that art was, and is, expected to undertake on behalf of the elite and legal establishment. This article attempts to bridge that gap by exploring the extent to which the creator of public artwork, so often a handmaiden of the State when helping us to imagine justice, is also capable of presenting us with subversive images of our Goddess which can, and should, disturb us.

The Formation of Metal Oxalates in the Painted Layers of a Medieval Polychrome on Stone, as Revealed by Micro-Raman Spectroscopy

This paper reports a detailed study of the degradation phenomena exhibited by the painted bas-relief sculpture on the portal of the Basilica of San Zeno Maggiore in Verona. This study extends the wide diagnostic project started previously by the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro (ICR, Rome). Micro-Raman measurements on polished cross-sections of samples from the painted lunette allowed detailed identification of the species present in the different layers, thanks to the high spatial resolution and chemical selectivity of this technique. One of the most interesting findings was the occurrence of large amounts of metal oxalates. In particular, in addition to calcium oxalates, copper oxalate was observed in layers containing copper-based pigments, and data on the distribution of both these oxalates within the painted layers were obtained. The results give evidence of the nature of the degradation processes taking place involving the painting materials, provide information about the degree of degradation, and make it possible to advance reliable hypotheses on the causes and mechanisms of ageing. Along with calcium oxalates, copper oxalate proves to be a reliable marker for degradation, which is of general interest for the study of outdoor paintings containing copper-based pigments.

Digital bas-relief from 3D scenes

We present a system for semi-automatic creation of bas-relief sculpture. As an artistic medium, relief spans the continuum between 2D drawing or painting and full 3D sculpture. Bas-relief (or low relief) presents the unique challenge of squeezing shapes into a nearly-flat surface while maintaining as much as possible the perception of the full 3D scene. Our solution to this problem adapts methods from the tone-mapping literature, which addresses the similar problem of squeezing a high dynamic range image into the (low) dynamic range available on typical display devices. However, the bas-relief medium imposes its own unique set of requirements, such as maintaining small, fixed-size depth discontinuities. Given a 3D model, camera, and a few parameters describing the relative attenuation of different frequencies in the shape, our system creates a relief that gives the illusion of the 3D shape from a given vantage point while conforming to a greatly compressed height.

Digital bas-relief from 3D scenes

We present a system for semi-automatic creation of bas-relief sculpture. As an artistic medium, relief spans the continuum between 2D drawing or painting and full 3D sculpture. Bas-relief (or low relief) presents the unique challenge of squeezing shapes into a nearly-flat surface while maintaining as much as possible the perception of the full 3D scene. Our solution to this problem adapts methods from the tone-mapping literature, which addresses the similar problem of squeezing a high dynamic range image into the (low) dynamic range available on typical display devices. However, the bas-relief medium imposes its own unique set of requirements, such as maintaining small, fixed-size depth discontinuities. Given a 3D model, camera, and a few parameters describing the relative attenuation of different frequencies in the shape, our system creates a relief that gives the illusion of the 3D shape from a given vantage point while conforming to a greatly compressed height.

Comments on "Detonography trademark: The Creation of Bas-Relief Sculptures by Explosives"

Comments on "Detonography trademark: The Creation of Bas-Relief Sculptures by Explosives"

Homeless hieroglyphs

Recently, more than ever, Mesoamericanists have had reason to share in the regret felt by Egyptologists at one aspect of the history of antiquities-looting in Egypt - one clearly tinged with tragic irony. For, as Brian Fagan (1975: 11, 261) and others have pointed out, attempts to remove sculpture from ancient Egyptian sites on a large scale began only in the 1820s, and that was just the period when Champollion was achieving his basic decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. Since the coveted basrelief sculptures usually had to be prised from their settings by using chisels and crowbars, any associated hieroglyphic inscriptions tended to end up in smithereens. Champollion himself, as he travelled through Egypt seeking and transcribing texts, became appalled at the destruction, yet more than half a century would pass before collectors and museums came to recognize the damage they were causing through their purchases.

Detonography trademark: The Creation of Bas-Relief Sculpture by Explosives

Detonography trademark: The Creation of Bas-Relief Sculpture by Explosives