What and is the difference between sculpture in the round and relief sculpture?

In the round sculptures tend to free standing three dimensional forms -think of bronze statues or the lions in trafalgar square.

In relief tend to be built up or carved out from a flat surface

• medals and coins are good examples, they can still look three

dimensional in that they have raised areas but the head on a coin is very different from the head of a bust.

In relief sculpture can also stand up and you can walk around it however the proportions will not be right - in our head example the head could be on one side only with a flat back, or if the sculpture was in relief on both sides it would look like it had been severely squashed either side making an extremely thin face.