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Apollo pursuing Daphne

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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The sun god Apollo – identifiable by the golden rays around his head – pursues a young woman whose fingers are sprouting foliage. This is Daphne, a river nymph with whom the god has fallen in love. She rejects his advances and, rather than allowing him to catch her, is turned into a laurel tree.

This is one of ten frescoes which originally adorned the walls of a room known as the Stanza di Apollo in a garden pavilion at the Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati, near Rome. Eight of the frescoes were transferred to canvas and are now in our collection. All show stories of Apollo, mostly taken from the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Although Domenichino designed the scenes, much of the actual painting seems to have been left to assistants.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Apollo pursuing Daphne

Date

1616-18

Medium

Fresco, transferred to canvas and mounted on board

Measurements

H 311.8 x W 189.2 cm

Accession number

NG6287

Acquisition method

Bought, 1958

Work type

Painting

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Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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