Historical description

It is one of the artist’s most theatrical works in which Apollo appears to be running to catch Daphne while she asks God to transform herself into a laurel to escape from her pursuer.

This work was one of the last that Cardinal Scipione Borghese asked of Gian Lorenzo Bernini when he was around 20 years old and you can find it in the Galleria Borghese, the gallery that houses wonders of the great Italian artists of the time. The first carvings were in 1622, but he stopped work in the summer of 1623 because he had to work on the David that Cardinal Peretti had commissioned. In April of the same year, when he had finished it in 1624, he returned to work on it, assisted by Giuluani Finelli, intervening in the most delicate parts such as the branches and roots of the laurel. He finished it in 1625 and left his client so delighted that it did not take long to become extremely famous, calling it one of the most beautiful sculptures made by the artist.