Stiacciato
Stiacciato is a technique which allows a sculptor to create a recessed or relief sculpture with carving only millimetres deep. To give the illusion of greater depth, the thickness gradually decreases from the foreground to the background. In some ways it is more similar to a 2D image than a 3D sculpture and so the relief can use perspective. Vasari writes of the technique:
The technique was mainly used in the 15th and 16th centuries, begun and dominated by Donatello. The earliest surviving example is his St George Freeing the Princess and his other works in the genre include the Pazzi Madonna, The Assumption of the Virgin and Herod's Banquet.
