Object of the Day: Hebe and Jupiter’s Eagle

This unsigned bronze sculpture on a green marble base depicts Hebe—the daughter of Jupiter and Juno—astride her father’s eagle. Hebe was the goddess of youth and the cupbearer of the gods. Often depicted as a lithe figure of ideal beauty, Hebe was a frequent subject of Nineteenth Century French sculptors whose goal was to present the feminine ideal. The subject remained popular well into the 1930’s as the female form became more abstracted, relying on curvilinear planes and organic shapes.


This particular sculpture is modeled after the work of Francois Rude who often sculpted Hebe with Jupiter’s eagle. I would place the sculpture as having been cast in the early Twentieth Century. The fierceness of the eagle is contrasted against the softness of the figure of Hebe in keeping with Classical depictions of the subject.