Apollo&Dafne

One of my favourite pieces of art is a statue by Gian Lorenzo Bernini called "Apollo e Dafne" (1621-1623) . Bernini for this work was inspired by the myth of these two lovers mentioned by Ovidio in his book "Le Metamorfosi".

The myth is about this beautiful and pure girl, Dafne, who lived in the forest totally devoted to the nature. One day Apollo, the god of love, while walking in the forest, saw this magnificent creature and he fell in love with her desperately. He started to follow her through the forest but, when she realized Apollo was in love with her, she began to run away because she was frightened. Apollo didn't understand her behaviour and he didn't give up running; so Dafne completely exhausted by the escape started to pray to her father Zeus to help her and he turned her in a laurel.

Bernini took exactly this moment: the one in which she stopped because her feet started becoming a trunk and Apollo, catching her up, realized he had lost his love. What is really beautiful about this statue, apart from the great dimensions (243cm) is Apollo's totally lost expression because Dafne is turning into a laurel and her feet, her hair and her hands have already turned and he can't do anything anymore. Another characteristic of this piece of art is the position: Bernini, deciding to catch this particular moment, chose to fix something in movement into something static like a statue and in order to do that he had to change the focus of all the marble group: not in the centre anymore but moved right creating a motion's sensation.

Now this statue is in one of the Galleria Borghese's rooms in Rome, so if you want to admire it you know where you have to go.