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an image representing the resurrected Christ in the Noli me tangere episode, involving Mary Magdalene. This scene is accompanied by the inscription Easter Offering. Above the pitcher, on the right side of the box, is a scene which is obviously set in the near East, and which brings to mind participants in a cinematic Calvary. At a different level of interpretation, the harp also carries religious overtones. 

Although few if any of the women in Odalisque are odalisques proper, naturally and presumably correctly the profusion of images of women has been viewed is at once reflecting and generating the title of the piece, which is stamped with the date 1955 on a metallic strip attached to the top left edge of the left side of the box (fig. 5)13. Moreover, the cushion has been connected with the "requisite pillow...generally used to cushion the pampered head of the traditional nude," while the post which penetrates it, and the rooster predictably have been taken as symbols of masculinity14. As an entity, Odalisque has been viewed as a pendant and counterpart to the combine Untitled, also of 1955, with its predominantly male imagery 15.

In general, the sensual and erotic aspects of Rauschenberg's combine are easily recognisable and indisputable. However, the inventory of images that has just been taken enables one to comprehend better the diversity of Rauschenberg's allusions. If the cock is an obvious symbol of male sexuality, the same might be said for the stag and the bull; and if the post is a transparently phallic image, the same might be said for the rigid, angled column of the harp. Sometimes the association of images further develops the theme of 

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Fig. 4 Robert Rauschenberg, Odalisque, detail, back of box. Museum Ludwig, Cologne.

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Fig. 5 Robert Rauschenberg, Odalisque, detail, left side of box. Museum Ludwig, Cologne

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