(by Juan DeJesus, copyright 2000, all rights reserved)

It is a curious thing, that the young, with all the time in the world, lack the gift of patience, while the elderly, with hardly any time left, enjoy it in abundance. In his old age, Antonio the sculptor, had great patience. Disparate elements would sit in his mind for years, waiting for the event that would bring them together into a fully realized work of art.

In this instance the event was a beggar boy, new to the street. Antonio noticed him on a Tuesday, a scruffy twelve year old. The boy did not have a face that was beautiful, cherubic or handsome, but there was something about it that was appealing. His rags did little to hide a sturdy boyish build. Enticing, was the word Antonio would have applied, if anyone had asked him to explain the attraction.

Now the sculptor’s ideas for a new work fell into place. He proposed to create a piece in marble depicting Icarus and Daedalus, after the boy’s fall from the sky. For this, the beggar boy would be the model for Icarus and he, himself, would appear as the old man. It would be a particularly appropriate memorial to his career and his person.

The following morning he went out to find the youngster, before anything happened to deprive him of his enterprise. At that time, it was not uncommon for a poor lad to find himself without home or family. Various misfortunes could split apart a man from his woman and both from their children. Once on the street, without skills or protection, a youth might get caught up in any number of situations that would quickly make him unsuitable for the sculptor’s purpose. Illness and early death were among the probable events. A lad could quickly be marred beyond repair; physically, mentally or both. Therefore, time was of the essence.

Antonio began at the place where he had seen the boy last. The lad was not there, so the sculptor began a progression through the surrounding streets, working outward from the starting point as far as he thought reasonable and then retraced his path. Finally, he spotted the youth hurrying from the door of a vendor, pursued by the angry shouts of the merchant, to get away and stay away.

Approaching, Antonio asked, “Are you hungry?”

The boy looked up with his angry face still on. This changed to one of suspicion, then passed through unsustainable indifference before arriving at hopeful. “Yes,” he said.

“Come then,” Antonio instructed.

They proceeded to the nearest square. At Antonio’s direction, they took seats at a table outside one of the several establishments. The man ordered bread and hot spiced wine. As soon as the bread was on the table and Antonio had indicated that he should eat, the boy tore into the loaf and stuffed his mouth. Antonio sipped from his cup and watched the youth chew.

“What is your name?” the man asked, as soon as the lad paused in his eating.

“Remi,” the youngster informed the man, quickly clearing his palette with spiced wine before continuing to feed.

This time Antonio did not wait to speak. “Would you like a place to live?”

The boy’s jaw ceased its determined action, and he looked at the man with a mixture of wary surprise and desperate longing. He contained far too much bread to speak.

“There would be work, of course,” Antonio continued. He did not smile as the lad masticated furiously and swallowed.

An older boy, or one less needy, would have asked what sort of work would be required. Even as he spoke, Remi knew that he should have done so, but was too afraid of loosing a chance that might never again present itself. “Yes,” he said.

“Good, finish your spiced wine then and bring the rest of the bread with you.” Antonio, by example, drained his cup and waited for the boy to do the same. Then he stood, the lad did likewise, and they began the return trip to the house of the sculptor.

Remi continued eating while walking at the man’s side. It was a reflex habit to finish all available food as soon as possible. This avoided any chance of someone taking it away from him. That food in the stomach was safe from all attack, was something he had learned so early in life that he had no conscious awareness of the rule.

In due course, they came to the august abode of the sculptor. Set among other impressive stone buildings with ornamented windows in the latest fashion and boasting real glass, Antonio’s had four floors, a central door eight steps up a double set of stairs flanking a servants’ ingress eight steps down and directly under the primary entrance.

“Do you work here?” the lad asked, wonderment in his eyes.

Antonio smiled at the boy’s error and decided not to correct it for now. “Indeed, I do,” he said, that being the plain truth, since his studio was located in the garden behind the mansion. It suited his immediate plan, in any case, to bring the lad into those areas set aside for the work of his household employees.

He opened the iron door and stepped inside, quickly signing a greeting to his staff, in order to prevent any excess of salutation that might give away his actual position. Even so, the obvious deference paid to him, in the form of respectful glances and bows of the head, impressed Remi, who decided that the man must be the butler. It was, in fact, that functionary who Antonio wanted and subsequently found in his office/pantry.

“I want this young man to begin with a period of service in the kitchens,” he told the actual butler. Hearing this, Remi decided that that Gaetano was the head chef. “His name is Remi.”

“Remi, wait outside for Gaetano, I wish to speak with him privately.”

The boy stepped outside the narrow room, crammed with cabinets. He leaned against the wall just outside the door. Across from him was another door that was closed. Beyond and to his left he could see into the great open space of the kitchen. There were at least four people laboring there, two men, a boy older than himself and a woman. The noise emanating from their work and chatter made it impossible to make out the conversation in the butler’s pantry.

Antonio told Gaetano to see to the lad’s lodging and to get him cleaned up. The youth would need all his clothes replaced and about a month of good food and frequent baths to be ready for his intended duties. Meanwhile, he should be put to work as a kitchen helper. The cooks were to be instructed not to overwork him and to make sure that his time in their care was pleasant. They were to be strict, but friendly, and to know that the boy was destined for a higher position in the household.

*****

It was several days before Remi again laid eyes on Antonio. He was shown a cubicle for sleeping. He was repeatedly ordered into a tub of hot water and instructed on how to wash himself. The urchin put up with it because of the food and shelter. And because, those who had charge of him, they being everyone, for his position was the lowest rank and he was by far the youngest servant, were demanding but kind. He was in some ways their pet. While they taught and then required him to do the same thing over and over until he got it right, they also kidded and joked with him and did him little favors.

Then one afternoon, he was ordered to accompany his chief mentor, Gaetano, to a separate, large structure, roofed but with large gaps in the walls, located in the garden behind the house. Remi was required to put on a brand new set of clothes and to carry a large, two handled tray with cups and saucers, a steaming pot of spiced wine and a plate of pastries. He watched his feet very carefully as he followed the twisting path paved with flagstone. Gaetano had warned him not to trip and risk denting the vessels and ruining the food.

There in the huge open space he saw Antonio in dusty work clothes. His estimation of the man’s position fell drastically. The fellow was obviously a laborer, though perhaps a skilled one, a mason of some sort, judging by the tools and the blocks of stone. He set the tray down on a table top that Gaetano hastily wiped clean with a rag.

He was about to follow Gaetano back down the stairs, when his mentor said, “You’re to remain.”

“Bring a stool over to the table,” Antonio told the lad.

Looking about, Remi saw several, scattered about the large space. Selecting one he judged to be the right size for sitting at the table and drinking hot spiced wine, he picked it up and brought it forward, thinking that it was for the man to sit on. But Antonio was dragging another into position. The youth speculated, with pleasure, that he was about to be invited to share this treat.

Sure enough, the man gestured with open palm for Remi to seat himself. The sculptor poured. The lad took the cup that was handed to him and took a testing sip. It was delicious and only moderately hot. When the plate of pastries was held out to him, he automatically, selected the largest. Then he waited to see how the man would eat the one he had chosen for himself. It would be in delicate little bites, he speculated.

The youngster was relieved to see his host chomp off a large hunk and chew vigorously. Remi did the same. He smiled in unselfconscious satisfaction. The man smiled back at him and laughed.

“Do you like it here, so far?” Antonio asked the youngster.

“Yes,” the lad replied. “I have to work, but the food is good.”

“The other members of the staff like you, they tell me. They think you are quite lively and bright, a little mischievous perhaps.” Of course, Antonio had reports from Gaetano, not only of the lads behavior and disposition, but also the details of his body as revealed in the daily baths.

The boy beamed.

“Tomorrow, very early, we will go for a walk together. There are some things I want to show you.”

Remi was both excited and slightly alarmed at this prospect of alteration in routine. Routine was something of which he had little previous experience. Life had been constant chaos of one sort or another. In a very short time, he had come to appreciate calm, safe regularity. Now, change was again to assert itself. On the other hand, he had not been outside in nearly a week.

*****

The man collected him in the kitchen shortly after first light. The morning air was cool on his face and hands. Remi wore the same new clothes that he had on the previous afternoon. Antonio’s elegant outfit further confused him. Was the man a stonecutter, a butler or what. Why would someone who could afford such clothing get themselves all dirty in a shabby workroom? Or was the fellow perpetrating a fraud by pretending to be a gentleman?

Astonishingly enough, the apparent purpose of the trip was to go to a church and attend mass. They went to confession, knelt side by side to pray, and took communion. Afterward they toured the inside of the church. They stopped before a large Pieta. Antonio pointed out various details of the work that he liked or did not like. Then he asked Remi what he thought of the piece. The youngster said that it was very beautiful and very sad.

After the church they walked further to one of the important public squares of the city. In the center there was a fountain with large figures of Neptune, water nymphs and other creatures. The man had Remi look at each of these sculptures very carefully.

They proceeded to a large mansion at the edge of the city. Remi nearly blanched when Antonio went right up to the main entrance and rang the bell as though he were acquainted with the owner. More amazing yet, they were admitted and brought through the public rooms to the gardens in the rear. There the man directed the boy’s attention to a marble statue of Apollo.

After this, they returned home. Remi changed into his work clothes and resumed his kitchen duties. The youth had no idea why they had made this trip, but he had enjoyed the chance to be outdoors for a while.

Once again, that afternoon, he bought hot spiced wine to the man in the workroom. After he had set down the laden tray, the man took him to look at one of the large blocks of stone that were positioned roughly in the corners of the covered area. “This will be a statue of Cardinal Paolucci,” the man said. “The sculptures I showed to you this morning were all works of mine.”

Remi understood then, that the man was an artist. Probably the master of the house was his patron. They sat down to their afternoon repast.

“Do you know the story of Daedalus and Icarus?” the lad was asked. Of course he did. The boy, Icarus, in his exuberance at flying through the air with wings made of bird’s feathers and wax, ignored his father’s instructions, flew too close to the sun, fell from the sky and died. Every youth had been told that story as a moral lesson about the consequences of failing to obey the instructions of their elders.

“Yes,” he said.

“I intend to do a sculpture of Daedalus and Icarus and for you to be the model for the boy.”

*****

There were two changes in Remi’s duties. Beside modeling for the sculptor, he began training, under the tutelage of Gaetano, to be table servant for the master. A small dining table had been set up in a storage room. Gaetano would sit at the one place and instruct the youngster on the proper execution of his duties.

Remi’s position was to stand in back of the master. He was to remove used tableware, knives, spoons, plates, dishes, glasses and odd implements of all sorts and replace them with whatever was required for the next course. In order to do this properly he had to know what was necessary. Serving dishes would be passed to him by other servants and he would dole out a befitting portion to the master. He was to keep the proper wine glass filled with the correct wine. The necessary vessels and objects were placed on a side board behind him. Therefore, there was a lot to learn. And he was to perform his functions in such a way that the master would barely notice his presence.

At first he made many mistakes, and endured endless correction. In contrast, the work with the sculptor was mentally undemanding. He had only to disrobe and stand in a supporting device that Antonio had made. The statue would be of a boy who was lifeless, held up by the still strong right arm of an elderly man. A wooden brace attached to a post set into the platform that Remi stood on, was carved in the image of the man’s arm. The youngster was shown how to drape himself against this support, to relax all of his muscles, to let his head droop to the right shoulder, slightly back with the chin down and his eyes closed. On his back he wore a canvas set with feathers held on by straps just below his arm pits, and a head band. A single feather and a loop of cord were in his right hand. He was otherwise naked.

The first sessions were entirely taken up with measurements for the design of the support and the artificial wings. Then there were fittings and alterations. Several days were spent trying out slight variations in his posing position. Remi noticed how gently the man touched him in accomplishing these things. Antonio also cut the boy’s hair to the classic style and proportions he considered most appealing.

The work with the sculptor occupied most of the morning, followed by his lessons. Every afternoon, when he had hot spiced wine with Antonio, the sculptor would discuss that morning’s work with the boy. He would explain what he was trying to accomplish and ask for the lad’s opinion. That the man took such notice of him, pleased Remi. He was proud to be included in the planning of the work. When the man inquired after the progress of his lessons and his feelings about the household and his place in it, Remi appreciated the depth and sincerity of the interest that the fellow had for him.

The next phase of the sculptor’s work was the making of drawings. At first the sketches seemed crude. Slowly they evolved into detailed, accurate images of the boy’s body from a number of different angles. Drawings were also made of various body parts.

Each afternoon, Antonio showed Remi the drawings he had worked upon that day. The lad did not hide his admiration for the sketches nor did the man hesitate to praise the youth’s body. The youngster giggled at the sketch of his genitals. The man smiled and said that they were beautiful.

*****

An afternoon arrived when Gaetano told Remi that he would serve, for real at that evening’s meal. Finally, he would meet the master of the house, the lad thought. The table was set for one in a tiny dining room. Everything was ready and Remi was at his post when the door opened and his friend the sculptor came in. It was with some difficulty that the youngster restrained the smile and snorted laugh that wanted to break from his mouth. To do either of these things, he knew, would be inappropriate. He almost giggled when he saw how Antonio was pretending that he did not notice him. He maintained a neutral expression with the aid of the disappointment that followed quickly upon the brief elation of surprise. So this was to be yet another practice, but with real food and a real eater. If he did well, perhaps then he would be allowed to serve the master.

For the next three nights he served the sculptor in the little room. On the following evening, he was told there was to be a dinner party. Surely, the lad thought, I will serve the master. But no, the guests were all artists and it was Antonio who sat at the head of the table. Each of the other men had his own youth standing behind his chair, caring for his needs.

Then Gaetano began his training for yet another set of duties, those of the bedchamber. In cool weather there was the fire to be laid, so that the room would be warm when the master arrived. Then Remi was to assist with the disrobing, specially the removal of boots. He learned how to properly hang the various garments in the wardrobe.

Most generally the duty was to serve the master in any way possible. He might want something from the kitchen or the library. Or he could simply want a glass of liquor from one of the decanters that were kept in the room. There were a huge number of possibilities that Remi was prepared for. But he was given more general instructions to be followed for those requirements that could not be anticipated.

In the morning, there was the lugging of hot and cold water in the earthenware pitchers. After their use, they along with the wash basin, shaving brush and other implements had to be cleaned. If it had been used, the thunder jug had to be emptied, cleaned and set back under the bed.

As in the past, the verbal instructions were followed by practice where Gaetano played the part of the master. When the boy was told that he would begin this work in earnest, he assumed that in reality it would be yet another test. This time he was not surprised to find that it was the sculptor who arrived to repose in the sumptuous room.

But this time, the sculptor did not pretend that he had never laid eyes on him before. As soon as the door was closed, Antonio smiled warmly and greeted the lad. But he sat in the chair and waited for Remi to remove his work shoes.

While the boy went through the routine of helping the sculptor prepare for bed, the man discoursed with him amiably. Antonio refused a sleeping garment, telling the lad that he didn’t care for it tonight. Remi drew back the sheet and blanket, waiting at the side for the man to slip under them. The sculptor stayed his hand when he went to cover him.

“Get undressed and join me,” he said. “There’s plenty of room.”

“I’m supposed to sleep in the cot at the foot of the bed,” Remi protested. “Gaetano will be angry with me.”

“It’s a very nice bed. Don’t you like me any more?” Antonio teased.

“Yes,” the youngster laughed, “but Gaetano …”

“… will never know,” the sculptor finished for him.

*****

Of course, Remi eventually found out that the sculptor had been the master all along. For a half hour, he was angry with everyone for the deception. But he realized that he had deceived himself and they were only guilty of going along with it. While they may have laughed at him a little, they loved him too, and that made up for it.

If you ever see the finished sculpture, you will notice the perfect trust evidenced by the boy’s posture and the loving concern of the old man.