Apollo and Daphne

Apollo and Daphne is a marble group carved by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1622–1625 for Cardinal Scipione Borghese and preserved in Rome's Galleria Borghese. Its subject comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses: pursued by Apollo, Daphne asks her father, the river god Peneus, to transform her. Bernini captures the change as her feet become roots and her fingers and hair turn into laurel branches and leaves. Differently finished surfaces distinguish skin, fabric and bark within the marble. The group's original position against a wall guided the viewer towards a particular encounter with the unfolding scene, joining narrative clarity with the suggestion of sudden movement.