Sunk Relief

Sunk Relief is a type of sculptural relief which was predominant in Egypt. Sunk Relief would have been used on large surfaces, exterior walls, hieroglyphs and cartouches. The image is achieved through cutting deep relief into a completely flat surface. The relief can also be shallow. The main point of Sunk Relief, is that the image is literally sunken below and never rise above the original surface. The sculpture, however, can be modeled more fully with elements remaining at the original surface level. Thereby minimizing the level of effort required to complete the sculpture as the only part of the surface which needs to be cut and removed are the outlines of figures, objects and the detailing of these.

Key, the relief never rises beyond the original surface level of the material used.