Paddock Arts

Museum Friezes

As a class we learned about how friezes have been used in history and how architects use them in modern structures.  A frieze is a decorative band around a room or on the outside of the building.  They are usually above eye level.  These could be depict scenes, images or be purely decorative.

Once we looked at several examples, we discussed how artist create them using different materials and techniques.  We focused on the three types of reliefs that can be present in a frieze. 

• Intaglio – Just drawing into the clay with a tool.

• Bas (low) Relief – the image projects only slightly from the background plane.

• Haut (high)Relief – Where in which deep cuts or three-dimensional forms project significantly from the background plane

The children then broke into creative teams and began to plan out a frieze that could be added into a new wing of a museum.  They could choose any museum they wanted and needed to try to utilize as many relief techniques as possible.  Some of them choose to do a stand-alone relief while others created a scene that spanned several reliefs.