Talk:Iuliu Maniu

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I can't find an online photograph of the statue of Maniu, but: it's ugly. Hideous, really.

It's a bronze, slightly large than life size. Maniu is sitting in a chair, with a tree behind him. But the tree is leafless and rather abstract; it's like an ugly, spiky bronze candelabrum, giving no shade or shelter. Meanwhile Maniu himself has these big... cracks running all through his body. Like he's disintegrating, or someone is trying to chop him apart. And he's subtly disproportioned; his clothes are hanging on him, and his limbs are too thin, almost emaciated.

All in all, it's a nasty looking thing. Most people recoil a little. So did I, when I first saw it.

But: look again, and remember Maniu's story. Great liberal democrat, last honest man, spent his final years in a bleak Communist prison, froze to death and was thrown into an unmarked mass grave. The face of the statue is sad but calm; there's no hope in those eyes, but he's not broken either. The hands on the chair are turned upward, palms open. The body language is helplessness but not despair; he's accepting his fate, but will never admit it is right or fair.

If you know the story... the cracks in his body make it look like he's been, well, frozen and then thawed out. Well: there's Romanian democracy for you. Frozen for years under Communism, now thawed out, maybe not beautiful but present and accounted for. It's very appropriate that he sits in front of the Senate.

It's still an ugly statue. But the more you look at it, the more you realize how good it is. It's very rare in this part of the world to see the painful past acknowledged in this way. I think it's one of the best and bravest pieces of public statuary I've ever seen, and maybe the best in Eastern Europe. If you're ever in central Bucharest, make a point of stopping by.