A full-length figure of a man with his hands on his knees, 11th Century Burgundy

At first glance this remarkable stone carving could almost be taken to be modern – understandable, as these Romanesque pieces were some of the main sources of inspiration for artists such as Brâncuşi and Modigliani as they played their part at the birth of modernist sculpture.

Probably from the bell tower at Le Maison Bleue in Suze, Burgundy, this carving formed the central column to a pair of arch-topped windows. Behind the knees is a bolt hole for the window shutters. On the reverse, carved from the same block, are vertical mouldings in the form of a pair of twin colonnettes with torus bases.

A similar carving, though without the carved figure, is in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington.