Italy, Florence / c. 1700
Apollo and Daphne
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Apollo and Daphne as sculpture (Italy, Florence · c. 1700).
Soldani shows Daphne in the process of turning into a tree to escape the persistent Apollo.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as terracotta and credits Massimiliano Soldani (Italian, 1656–1740).
The museum's collection notes: Apollo, the Greek and Roman god of the sun and the arts, fell in love with the nymph Daphne. Chased to a riverbank, Daphne prayed to her father, the river god, Peneus, for help. At the moment Apollo reached out to touch her, she transformed into a laurel tree, branches and roots sprouting from her body. This work reveals key preoccupations of artists working in Italy in the 1600s: novel, active compositions; fleeting moments; and transformation from one physical form into another. Soldani based this work on a large-scale marble sculpture from 1622–25 by the Roman artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtApollo and DaphneOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.