Daphne1.0086

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, "Apollo and Daphne," ca. 1624, Rome, Galleria Borghese no. 125

Bernini depicts Ovid's famous version of Apollo's pursuit of Daphne in Metamorphoses 1: "Apollo saw her, loved her, wanted her // her for his bride, and wanting, hoped // deceived by his own oracles." (Met 1. 490-492, Melville)

The angle of this picture depicts Apollo in high-speed pursuit, pursuing Daphne in the split-second of her transformation into a static tree. Bernini captures in stone Ovid's tale: "Scarce had she made her prayer when through her limbs a dragging languor spread, her tender bosom was wrapped in thin smooth bark, her slender arms were changed to branches and her hair to leaves; her feet but now so swift were anchored fast in numb stiff roots, her face and head became the crown of a green tree; all that remained of Daphne was her shining loveliness." (Melville trans, lines 550 - 57.)