Apollo Pursuing Daphne
For now, just to look at
The photograph we have of this work is not sharp enough to print at the quality we want, so we are not selling it for now. We are looking for a better one.
About the work
- Date
- 1743
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 96 x 79 cm (con marco: 1,23 x 1,07 m)
- Collection
- Musée du Louvre, Paris (Department of Paintings)
- Reference
- XDV-1801
What the museum label doesn't tell you
Bernini carved them in profile, almost one single body. Tiepolo pulls them apart: Apollo runs in from a distance, haloed in gold, pointing instead of grasping. The real agent beside Daphne is an old man half-lost in shadow, leaning on his urn - not her father Peneus, but the river god Alpheus, a witness turned author of the transformation. Apollo arrives late to his own myth. The light falls on the one doing least.
