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15:58 Mar 16, 2011
German to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting
German term or phrase:fast freiplastisch
From Hamann's Geschichte, The Vezelay Christ
Der Körper hebt sich ***fast freiplastisch*** vom Grunde ab, die Glieder lösen sich aus dem Gesamtstamm des Körpers und treten unter dem Gewand hervor.
If you blank out the word 'fast' (which after all constitutes one half of this KudoZ question as posted), you detract from the author's sense of wonderment.
Obviously, but it is such a ridiculous thing to say about the piece, as you must be able to see from the image you and I have both provided, that it needs a rewrite to make any sense.
Agree with all you say. I still feel uncomfortable with relief here. No disrespect to Andrew, since clearly people do use it in such circumstances, but my specialism is sculpture above everything, and it is not how I would describe this particular object. It is not, however, free-standing/a Freiplastik, since it is not standing without support on the ground. It is architectural sculpture. My feeling is that its distinguishing feature, deliberately so conceived by its maker, is that it departs from the normal high relief sculpture - by alluding to an escape from its architectonic frame. The problem for me, however, may be in the GER text which may not have been written by a specialist or academic, so without more context, I feel it better to leave it to Andrew's suggestion, as long as 'high relief' is chosen, rather than 'full relief'. If it is a more academic text, then I would definitely suggest a re-write along the lines suggested by Stephen and myself.
With Helen. Possibly just a synonym for 'ground' - e.g. background or 'from its matrix' (at a pinch), & what about 'stands (or if you will, 'stands virtually' ) free of...' even though it's not strictly 'free-standing'. & agree, (frieze, yes, at least by loose analogy), relief, no. Grüße!
I think I would reword this and say something like: the body is raised from the ground almost as if sculpted fully in the round. I know it rhymes which is unfortunate, but this is not really relief sculpture any more.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +6