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The picture shows a capital from a church in Arles. The theme of this late 12th-century capital has its origin in a distant eastern prototype. But the modelling, with its assertive relief and its plasticity, belongs to Roman sculpture. The two monsters, male and female, are in no way frightening or enigmatic; their supple, free bodies and amiable faces are a far cry from the traditional representation of beasts. The composition is perfectly balanced but its arrangement has more in common with that of a frieze or a bas-relief than with the more compact, blocklike decoration appropriate to a corbel or a capital.
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