Apollo and Daphne

Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne at the Villa Borghese

It’s a beautiful Spring. Perhaps we should all get chased through the forest and pray to be turned into trees?


I still contend that Daphne gets the better end of the “tree-woman” (see my Huldra’s post) stick in art history, and this statue testifies to that. Bernini tells the myth of Daphne being turned into a tree to escape the God Apollo beautifully, and I remember when I saw it in person at 15 being awestruck by the movement and softness of the sculpture. It is still one of my favorites.