Apollo and Daphne is a Baroque marble sculpture by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini executed circa 1622–25. Housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, the work depicts the climax of the Daphne and Phoebus’ story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Apollo, instantly enamored with Daphne, is determined to have her for himself. He chases her and as he nears, Daphne pleads for her father, the river god Peneus, to help her escape relentless Apollo’s grasp.
Bernini, merely in his twenties at the time of production, skillfully managed to capture the exact moment when Peneus answers his daughter’s prayer by transforming her into a laurel tree.
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