THORVALDSEN, Bertel
(b. 1768/70, København, d. 1844, København)

Hebe

1806
Marble, height 156 cm
Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen

Thorvaldsen produced his first model of Hebe in 1806. The daughter of Zeus and Hera, Hebe is the goddess of Youth and Spring, and proffers the cup of immortality at the table of the gods. Thorvaldsen returned to this subject again and again, the figure of Hebe being conceived as a female counterpart to the standing Ganymede.

Hebe stands on her plinth, raising the drinking bowl with her left hand, her gaze focusing on it. She holds the jug with a lowered right hand beside her thigh.




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