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The likely function of this late-Gothic relief was as the crowning element of a wall tabernacle, a space let into the wall of a church near an altar where the consecrated hosts were kept after Mass had been celebrated. In the three compartments with round-headed arches stand the figures of the Virgin with the Child flanked by St Benedict of Nursia (dressed in black) and St Bernard of Clairvaux, the founders, respectively, the Benedictines and the Cistercians, two related monastic orders.
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