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| GENERAL INFORMATION | 
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| ARCHITECTURE |
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| THE LAYOUT OF THE BATHS |
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| Mérimée or the charms of The Kneeling Venus | 
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MERIMEE OR THE CHARMS OF THE KNEELING VENUS
Prosper Mérimée, Historic Monuments inspector, at the time of his journey to the South of France in 1834, took a close interest in the remains of the "Mirror Palace" baths and in particular in one of the many statues found on the site, the Kneeling Venus."It is a woman kneeling (...). Her breasts are full and slightly pendulous and seem to be swollen with milk ; they are the breasts of a lovely wet-nurse who has had several children (...). The model was a chubby woman of 27 or 28, with a solid, plump figure which was beginning to lose its elasticity. Following the lines of the body, there are folds of fat on her sides and her stomach, incidentally also very big, has folds of fat, which are, sadly, fairly common accidents of nature. (...) the sculptor has made the marble breathe ; one can feel the skin and is astonished on touching the marble that it does not give beneath our fingers, softly, too softly, like his model's muscles." Translated from P. Mérimée, notes d'un voyage dans le midi de la France,, Adam Biro 1835, p. 97
