mezzo rilievo (English spelling) mezzorilievo

Strictly speaking, it is distinguished from simple engraved lines, such as the rock carvings of Tassili n'Ajjer, and from complete sculptures in the round fixed to the background wall, such as the gable carvings of Greek temples and the statues of Gothic cathedrals. Depending on the degree of relief, or in other words the degree of compression of the depth space, it is classified as high relief (alto rilievo), half relief (mezzo rilievo), or low relief (basso rilievo). All of these belong to the so-called "relief carvings," in which the sculpture protrudes from the background surface, but there are special examples of relief carvings, such as "intaglio carvings," in which the sculpture is sunken into the background surface, and in the case of cylinder seals, which are examples of complete intaglio carvings, and in the technique commonly used in ancient Egypt, the sculpture itself is a relief carving in low relief, but the outline is carved in and the whole sculpture is sunken into the background surface, so-called "chambered relief."

*Some of the terminology explanations that mention "mezzo rilievo" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…厳密には，単なる刻線によるもの，たとえばタッシリ･ナジェールの岩壁刻線画とは区別され，またギリシアの神殿の破風彫刻やゴシック大聖堂の彫像のように，完全な丸彫彫刻を背景壁面に固定したものとも区別される。彫刻の浮出しの程度，換言すれば奥行き空間の圧縮度に応じて，高浮彫alto rilievo，半浮彫(中肉浮彫)mezzo rilievo，低浮彫(薄肉浮彫)basso rilievoに分類される。これらは，いずれも彫刻が背景面より突出するいわゆる〈陽刻〉に属するが，浮彫の特殊な例としては，逆に背景面より彫刻が沈む〈陰刻〉，あるいは〈沈み彫〉があり，円筒印章の場合などは完全な陰刻の例であり，古代エジプトで慣用された手法では，彫刻そのものは低浮彫の陽刻であるが，輪郭線の部分で彫り込まれて，ぜんたいが背景面より沈んでいる，いわゆる〈くり型浮彫〉がある。…

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