alto-relievo

English

Alternative forms

• alto-rilievo

Etymology

From Italian altorilievo (“high relief”).

Noun

alto-relievo (countable and uncountable, plural alto-relievos)

1. (sculpture) A form of sculpture in which carved figures or other objects protrude from the background.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 15, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     Nobody is in the great pew of the Clavering family, except the statues of defunct baronets and their ladies: there is Sir Poyntz Clavering, Knight and Baronet, kneeling in a square beard opposite his wife in a ruff: a very fat lady, the Dame Rebecca Clavering, in alto-relievo, is borne up to Heaven by two little blue-veined angels, who seem to have a severe task—and so forth.

Translations

high relief — see high relief

See also

• bas relief