Apollo and Daphne

Artist After Gianlorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598 - 1680)

Date17th century

MediumBoxwood

DimensionsOverall: 15 5/8 × 8 1/4 × 4 1/4 inches (39.69 × 20.96 × 10.8 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Milton McGreevy through the Mission Fund

Object numberF61-39

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Great Stories in Art, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, February 13-March 27, 1966, hors. cat.

The Gods of High Olympus and a Hero, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 15-March 20, 1983, no. 35.

The Age of the Marvelous, Hood Museum, Hannover, NH, September 14-November 24, 1991; North Carolina Museum of Art, January 25-March 22, 1992; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May 19-August 9, 1992; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, October 6, 1992- January 3, 1993, no. 46.

Gallery Label

This is a small-scale copy by an unknown German artist of a celebrated statue in the Villa Borghese in Rome by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the greatest sculptor of the 17th-century Italian Baroque. Here, Apollo is shown pursuing the nymph Daphne, who evaded him by turning into a laurel tree. Leaves are already sprouting from her arms, and bark begins to enclose her body. Bernini's work, as here, is characterized by dynamic energy and vivid realism. The original marble by Bernini is much larger, but the boxwood used here is more suitable for conveying detail on a small scale and more appropriate for the subject.

Provenance

With Giorgio Sangiorgi, Rome, by April 24, 1956;

Purchased from Sangiorgi by the dealer Adolph Loewi (1888-1977), Los Angeles, CA, stock no. 13321, April 24, 1956-1961 [1];

Purchased from Adolph Loewi by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1961.

NOTES:

[1] Frick Art Reference Library Archives, New York, MS.129 Loewi-Robertson Archive, Stockbook 1939-1956, copy in NAMA curatorial files.

Published References

Ralph T. Coe, “Small European Sculptures,” Apollo 96, no. 130 (1972): 515, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 123, (repro.).

Oliver Phillips, The Gods of High Olympus And a Hero (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, 1983), 12, 22, (repro.).

Joy Kenseth, ed., The Age of the Marvelous (Hannover, NH: Hood Museum of Art, 1991), 270.

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