Millstatt (Kärnten) How can this extraordinary Austrian sculpture - featuring a reverse column-swallower beast - be explained ? The skirted (female ?) person, on whose shoulders rests a second column, is licking the beast's anus withg a long tongue. Such a carving, situated in a cloister, returns me to my original thought that column-swallowers represented either a particular carnal sin or a kind of fabulous companion to (or symbol of) sin. The typical Romanesque lion on the left of the picture is holding a fish in its forepaws. The meaning of this is also obscure.
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