Hebe

Already in drawings of 1783-85 Canova was studying motifs of female figures in movement; in the first decade of the new century he painted a whole series of tempera works in the Pompeian style that developed the same motif in many rhythms, a motif to which he later returned in sculpture with various dancers, from the one with her hands on her hips, now in Leningrad (1806), to the one with her finger to her chin, and the one with cymbals (1808-09). But as early as 1796 he had modelled an elegant, light image of Hebe (now in Germany) that aroused enormous enthusiasm, so that the sculptor had to repeat it several times: in 1801 for the Empress Josephine (now in Leningrad), in 1814 for Lord Cawdor (at Chatsworth), in 1816 for Veronica Guerrini. This last is the Forlì version, in which Canova, as in the English example, besides the subtle variations he continually made to his inventions, introduced a new and unexpected element: polychromy in soft, delicately shaded colours.