3775. The small statues of Christ Ivan carved were not much
of a challenge for him, even with his limited abilities, because they were all
copied from a form created by some unknown master years ago, and the procedures
involved to reproduce the images were so formalized that each step was both
numbered and named. It seemed to Ivan that even a blind person could have
hacked out the shapes he was required to create; so mechanical was the process.
3776. It was there in the ornaments department of the
funeral parlor that Ivan met Harriet’s husband, at a time when he was there to
make arrangements for Aunt Marfa’s funeral. He was introduced as the son and
grandson of the creator of the famous equestrian statue that had been in the
news of late.
3777. Because of that introduction Ivan was treated as a
master craftsman, even though the work he was performing in the monument
department indicated that he was not the master he was mistake for. Harriet’s
husband, as we mentioned before, was not about to make any observations about
the quality of Ivan’s work, since sculpture was all the same to him
3778. The painter Harriet’s husband invited to her birthday
party was a different sort of person altogether. He had learned his trade in
the guilds of the icon makers and was considered destined to become a true
master of the art. Not content to utilize the tin stencils in use from time immemorial
to outline the shapes of the figures in various icons, he drew his shapes from
nature.
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