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A theme of temptation seems to be the subject of Caresses, in which a semi-nude androgynous figure resists a female-headed leopard. The striking and provocative image suggests the struggle of artistic idealism against sensual temptation.
The many sphinx (a winged monster having a woman's head and a lion's body) figures in Khnopff's work are not allegories; as Mallarmé interprets them, they are "ideas" of the senses.
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