Cleveland Museum of Art
Apollo and Daphne
Massimiliano SoldaniLinkedCulture matchlcp-3093b51a3213
- Date
- c. 1700
- Medium
- terracotta
- Culture
- Italy, Florence
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 156517
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Apollo, the Greek and Roman god of the sun and the arts, fell in love with the nymph Daphne. Chased to a riverbank, Daphne prayed to her father, the river god, Peneus, for help. At the moment Apollo reached out to touch her, she transformed into a laurel tree, branches and roots sprouting from her body. This work reveals key preoccupations of artists working in Italy in the 1600s: novel, active compositions; fleeting moments; and transformation from one physical form into another. Soldani based this work on a large-scale marble sculpture from 1622–25 by the Roman artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Soldani shows Daphne in the process of turning into a tree to escape the persistent Apollo.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Provenance
- 1897–1959: Private collection of Mrs. Elizabeth Parke Firestone (Newport, Rhode Island). | 1959–1990: Upon her death, held in trust by the estate of Mrs. Elizabeth Parke Firestone. | 1990–1991: Estate of Elizabeth Parke Firestone [sold, Christie's, New York, lot no. 840, to Daniel Katz., Ltd.). | 1991–1992: Daniel Katz., Ltd., sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art.
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