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.
This, too, is one of my favorite sculptures. Have you read Simon Schama on this work and on Bernini in general? He intensifies the appreciation.