Thursday 12 November 2015

Hebe


Don't bother to try and find me on Facebook (if you were) because I have taken myself off. A/ I don't trust myself on it, and B/ It was getting very boring - as boring as I was to everyone else. I had to remind myself that I have never been one for parties, but I will miss some of the good jokes to be had there. I won't miss the selfies, though.

I am currently waiting for a photo of a plaster-cast of Canova's marble Hebe figure to be sent to me, and it reminded me of another cast which arrived in my workshop some years ago, sans feet.

This copy was cast in concrete, and I was to replace the feet by modelling them direct onto the metal armatures which stuck out from the severed stumps. I won't bother to go into the technical difficulties of this, just that I needed to know what the original feet looked like so I could model them up as they were.

I searched several libraries in several towns and several search-engines, but could only find dimly-lit, artistic pictures of the thing, so I just modelled them up anyway, and the finished thing left my workshop.

A few weeks later, I happened to go upstairs in the Victoria Gallery, and when I reached the top, I saw the real thing - one of three figures of Hebe carved by Canova - staring me full in the face, and with feet.

For twenty years or more, I had been looking at the top of Hebe's head from my bedroom window just over the road.


25 comments:

  1. Life is probably full of coincidences like this I think Tom - some we come across and others we never know about. Were the feet you did right in comparison with the real thing?
    I have never been on Facebook because I find it all so facile. Not sure why the same doesn;'t apply to Blogging, but for me it certainly doesn't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My feet were more realistic than Canova's as it turned out. Yes, facile is the word for Facebook unless, like I said before, you need to be noticed/remembered for professional reasons.

      Delete
  2. I'm sorry you're leaving Facebook, Tom. I was looking forward to your drunken rants. I'll just keep checking here to find them.
    For me FB a quiet way to keep up with people I used to socialize or work with and whom I no longer see: high school classmates who live in Florida, the mothers of my daughters' friends, my cabin mates from summer camp, an old boyfriend or two. It's fun to see what they share and to acknowledge that we might still have some interests in common. They are people for whom I have affection. It's also a way for me to appear friendly to people like in-laws who I really can't be bothered to keep in touch with but should. If I was better at nurturing and maintaining friendships, I probably wouldn't need it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. An old boyfriend 'or two'? You mean there was more than one?

      Delete
  3. You always find things in the last place you look. The irony--you weren't looking.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What an interesting job/skills you have. The statue is beautiful. As an introvert, I don't want to befriend friends of friends I never even knew. My friend, daughter and sister always have their phone in their face on Facebook. I simply can't imagine the attraction.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I had to google a picture of the entire sculpture. It is beautiful

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Canova knew how to carve a good arse or three.

      Delete
  6. I've never seen a joke on my Facebook. I once made a joke and got into trouble.

    I thought a hebe was a plant and you had therefore gone mad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I too had to look up hebe. Here on the east coast (US), it is a pejorative term for a Jewish person.

      Delete
    2. I didn't know that. Just as John says, I never studied diplomacy at college.

      Delete
  7. What a lovely place to live in.....such creamy stone everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Where? Bath? When I first moved here it was all black, My first jib was to clean it,

      Delete
    2. job... (fuckingrumblecuntscunts)

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. My keyboard needs cleaning too.

      Delete
    2. I was never trained as a typist. I am a fast two-finger merchant.

      Delete
    3. Ah, there you are, Jack@ - I wondered if a bit of filth would bring you out!

      Delete