Large Bronze Sculpture Apollo & Daphne, After Giovanni Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Description

Large Bronze Sculpture Apollo & Daphne, After Giovanni Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598–1680) This large bronze sculpture depicts the mythological figures Apollo and Daphne at the climactic moment of transformation, inspired by Bernini’s celebrated marble group in the Villa Borghese, Rome. This bronze was executed in Rome in the second half of the 1800's or possibly earlier. The subject derives from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in which Apollo, pierced by Cupid’s arrow, falls hopelessly in love with the nymph Daphne. But Daphne was doomed to Cupid’s repulsive love and denied the love of men. Pursued relentlessly, Daphne begs her father, the river god Peneus, to intervene, and he transforms her body into a laurel tree. This moment of change—flesh becoming bark, hair becoming leaves—is captured with extraordinary clarity in the sculpture, as Daphne’s hands sprout laurel branches and her legs begin to root into the earth. Apollo is shown in full stride, reaching forward as Daphne lifts her arms, her fingers and hair metamorphosing into branches and leaves. The sculpture is finely cast with strong attention to anatomical precision, evident in the musculature of Apollo’s torso, the tension in Daphne’s extended body, and the intricate details of flowing drapery and textured foliage. The surface displays a dark patina, with gilt highlights visible in the hair and details of the hands, further emphasizing its depth of casting. The base is modeled with rocky terrain and vegetation, grounding the dramatic upward thrust of the figures. Bernini made the statue for Cardinal Scipione Borghese to adorn his villa outside Porta Pinciana, which is today the Galleria Borghese, where it is still displayed. He created the sculptural group over a three-year period, with some interruptions, beginning in the summer of 1622. One of the first who expressed his great enthusiasm for Bernini’s sculpture was the English diarist John Evelyn, who in 1644 wrote about the “incomparable candor” of the marble of this “new Piece of Daphny”. A few years later, another Englishman, Francis Mortoft, mentioned it as “a most rare and exquisite piece”. A similar bronze group of Apollo and Daphne, after Gianlorenzo Bernini (Italian, c. 1722), was sold at Christie’s London in Live Auction 7104: Important European Furniture, Sculpture and Carpets on 5 July 2007 for GBP 72,000, which at the time translated to approximately USD 145,440 (using a mid-2007 GBP/USD rate of ~2.02).

Details

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