The Grand Statuary

The statuary holds little surprise - it is what its name suggests. But it does hold wonder! An open, publicly accessible park is filled with renditions in stone and marble and bronze; the things that will endure the elements. Dozens of granite plinths are spaced in the circular green; not equidistant, but artistically distributed based on their size and subject matter. Mercenary generals and crowd to one side, explorers and great minds to another; natural and divine subjects elsewhere still. The mind is left to draw artistic conclusions about why one piece might have a certain neighbour. The whole area is enclosed by a ring of hedges that are themselves topped with marvellous topiaries; trees sculpted into the shapes of rabbits, and birds, and lions. None of these hold the detail of the marble sculptures, of course; but they hold distinct shape and style in their fine, small leaved branches at all and that seems a treasure in itself, for those who appreciate such things.

In the centre of the green is a large wooden rotunda with stone benches that must see a great deal of use. A liveried attendant is on hand at all times to wipe down the stone benches and the wooden tables as folk drift in during the day to dwell in the shade and appreciate the statuary around. But from within the rotunda, following the glance of locals up, you see a similarly impressive series of wood carved murals in massive, purplewood panels fixed under the roof. The wood is a kind you have never seen before, but the murals reveal its nature; a sequence of scenes of Marco Colombo sailing the Great Ocean, landing in the new world, fighting lizards who walk like men, dancing with what looks like a primitive tribe of beautiful human women, and at one point marvelling at a particularly large tree, which is cut down and loaded by sections onto a ship in a later panel.

A great many of the stone statues in the green are made from a particularly striking pink marble; and many of these are the most exceptionally detailed sculptures, capable of creating stunning illusions like wet cloth clinging to a human form, or an elven prince with fire rippling up over his outstretched arm. These are the most 'high art' elements of the Statuary. You remember Sapienza at the Lucky Duck pointing out locations on the Verezzo map - one of them was a pink marble statue, supposely one of the greatest of its kind in Tilea. You hadn't the time or occasion to check it out; but it must be connected to the rare quarry of the stuff that Trantio enjoys.

To contrast, at the far south end, there is a small crowd gathered around a wide pit full of fine golden sand. Three men operate within it, performing some kind of show; you take them to be brothers, or perhaps cousins calling themselves brothers for the purpose of their troupe. With a variety of shovels and trowels, and a few barrels of water, they are taking requests from the excited crowd of modestly monied burghers on what to sculpt from sand; and they carry out the commands with surprising fidelity. There are children visiting with an older woman you take to be their grandmother, and it seems they have convinced the artists to render her likeness. Additional requests from the crowd have added detail; the signora wearing a breastplate and holding a spear; now riding a lion; now with a wave crashing behind her; now with an orc quailing in the foreground. It's genuinely impressive that they can get such impressions out of simple sand at all; and the impermanence of such a work is somewhat tragic. After a while, full of giggles, the family moves on and you are left there with a diminished crowd as the afternoon brings a rumbling grey cloud. Rain approaches, and the tourists toss silver and copper into a pail for the sand sculptors and start to flake off.

"Time for one more, maybe - or half of one!" The oldest of the brothers announces this, as his kin smooth down the sand into a uniform lump. "Who's next? Who wants to be part of the Grand Statuary?"