ALTON—ALTO-RELIEVO. 
  
  
compass as the mezzo soprano, but differs from it in 
the position of the cantabile and in its character of 
tone. A. voices generally consist of two registers, 
the lowest beginning at I or G below middle C, and 
reaching as high as the A or B above the octave C. 
The higher notes up to the next I or G partake more 
of the character of the soprano. See VoOICE. 
ALTON, Jos. WirLgerLMm EpUuARD D', Professor of 
Archeology and the History of Art at Bonn, was 
born, 1772, at Aquileia, and died in 1840. In early 
years, his attention was directed to natural history, 
especially that of the horse, on which he published 
a splendid illustrated work (IVaturgeschichte des 
Pferdes, Bonn, 1810), which was completed in 
1817. In concert with his friend Pander, he pro- 
jected an extensive work on comparative osteology, 
of which the first division was published at Bonn 
1821—-1828. His etchings of animals, &c. are 
esteemed as valuable. ' Albert, Prince Consort of 
Queen Victoria, was a pupil of A. in the History of 
Art. 
A'LTONA, the largest and richest city in the 
duchy of Holstein in Denmark, is situated on the 
Elbe, so near Hamburg, that the two cities are only 
divided by the state-boundaries. It contains 32,200 
inhabitants. A. lies higher than Hamburg, and is 
much healthier; but, on the other hand, it is destitute 
of the numerous canals so necessary for the transport 
of goods, with which Hamburg is so abundantly pro- 
vided. In a commercial point of view, it forms one 
city with Hamburg. Its trade extends to England, 
France, the Mediterranean Sea, and the West 
Indies. There are many important industrial estab- 
lishments in A.; among others, the manufacture of 
tobacco is largely carried on, one factory working up 
600,000 lbs. yearly. A. is a free port, and enjoys 
many privileges in respect of trade, and also of civil 
freedom ; all sects are allowed the free exercise of 
their religion. The city is connected by a railway 
with Kiel, Rendsburg, and Gliickstadt. The observa- 
tory is a private institution, which has gained a 
great reputation under the direction-of Schumacher, 
who died in 1851. The rise of A. to its present 
importance has been recent and rapid, for a conti- 
nental town. 
A’LTORF, the chief town in the Swiss canton 
Uri, is situated in a sheltered spot at the base of the 
Grunberg, about two miles from the head of the 
Lake of the Four Cantons, and contains about 2000 
inhabitants. It is a well-built town, having several 
open. places, a church, a nunnery, and the oldest 
Capuchin monastery in Switzerland. The little 
tower on which the exploits of William Tell are 
painted in rude frescoes, is known to be older than 
the legend of Tell. The lime-tree under which the 
scene of the shooting of the apple was laid, was 
removed in 1657, and a stone-fountain erected in its 
stead. Situated on the St Gothard road, A. has 
some transit trade, but little or no industry of its 
own. 
A'LTO-RILIE'VO (Ital), high-relief, the term 
used in sculpture to designate that mode of repre- 
senting objects by which they are made to project 
strongly and boldly from the background, without 
being entirely detached. In Alto-Rilievo, some por- 
tions of the figures usually stand quite free, and in 
this respect it differs not only from basso-rilievo, or 
low-relief, but from the intermediate kind of relief 
known as mezzo-rilievo, in which the figures are fully 
rounded, but where there are no detached portions. 
In order to be in high-relief, objects ought actually 
to project somewhat more than half their thickness, 
no conventional means being employed in this style 
to give them apparent prominence. In bass-relief, 
on the other hand, the figures are usually flattened ; 
178 
  
but means are adopted to prevent the projection 
from appearing to the eye to be less than half; 
because if an object projects less than half, or, to 
state it otherwise, be more than half buried in the 
background, it is obvious that its true outline or 
profile cannot be represented. This rule, that in all 
reliefs there shall be either a real or an apparent 
projection of at least half the thickness of round 
objects, was strictly observed in the best period of 
Greek art, but it has been often' neglected in the 
execution of reliefs in later times, and hence attempts. 
have been made at foreshortening and perspective, 
which have necessarily resulted in partial failure. 
Relief forms a kind of intermediate stage between 
plastic art and painting, the mode of representation 
being borrowed from the former, whilst the mode of 
arrangement, to a certain extent, is in accordance 
with the latter. The plastic principle occupies the 
most prominent place in the simple and tranquil 
reliefs of the earlier art of Greece, whereas the 
pictorial principle preponderates in the crowded and 
often excited scenes represented in the later Roman 
reliefs. In such reliefs as have been produced in 
modern times, the one element or the other has 
prevailed, according as the one model or the other 
has been followed. The works which have been | 
recovered from the ruins of Persepolis, Nineveh, 
and Babylon, still attest the extensive employment 
of relief in Persian and Assyrian art. Of the latter, 
which usually belongs to the class of mezzo-rilievo, 
some of the finest specimens in existence are now to 
  
  
‘Winged Bull, 
be seen in the British Museum. Though never 
exhibiting the life and freedom of classical or modern 
European art, the elaborately executed and majestic 
reliefs of these semi-oriental nations are greatly 
in advance not only of the whimsical distortions 
of mnature exhibited by the Hindus, but of the 
inanimate and motionless representations of the 
Egyptians. 
The earliest Greek reliefs possessed a hard and 
severe character, somewhat approaching to the arb 
of those earlier nations of which we have just 
spoken, and were very slightly raised. Of this we 
have an example in the two lions over the gate 
at Mycene—probably the oldest Greek relief in 
existence. It was Phidias who gave to relief its true 
character, and finally brought it to a degree of perfec- 
tion which it has never since attained. The alti- 
rilievi which adorned the metopes of the Parthenon 
at Athens, and the Temple of Apollo at Phigalia in 
Arcadia, now preserved in the British Museum, are 
still not only unsurpassed, but unapproached as 
examples of the style. In none of these do we see 
any attempt at perspective, and even foreshortening 
for the most part is avoided. 
Under the Romans, sculpture was employed 
  
  
  
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