Italian School

Italian School
18th Century
Landscape with Apollo and Daphne
Oil on canvas
21 1/2 x 27 7/8 inches (54.5 x 70.6 cm)

This representation of the myth of Apollo and Daphne differs from its classical source in Ovid's Metamorphoses in that it shows Apollo's sister, the goddess Artemis (Diana), watching the action from within a cloud that has settled onto a nearby tree. Presumably in this version of the story it is she, rather than Daphne's father, the river god Peneus, who rescues Daphne from Apollo.

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