Piero del Pollaiuolo, 'Apollo and Daphne', probably 1470-80

Apollo and Daphne

Piero del Pollaiuolo

Not on display

About the work

Overview

This tiny picture has grand themes: the rivalry of the gods and the power and danger of love. Its story comes from the Metamorphoses, by the Roman poet Ovid. Cupid, taking revenge on Apollo for his teasing, struck the god with a golden arrow of love, igniting a fierce desire for Daphne – but struck Daphne with an arrow which caused her to reject him. She fled from him until her father Peneus, the river god, helped her to escape Apollo’s embrace: he transformed her into a laurel tree.

The painting was once thought to be part of a piece of decorated furniture, but it was probably made as an independent painting. The delicacy of the minute details, like the flowers scattered across the hillside and the reflection of the trees in the river, along with the subtle painting of the distant, hazy mountains, suggest it was meant to be admired close up.

In-depth

This tiny picture combines the beauty of nature and of man – quite literally in the case of Daphne, who is shown being transformed into a leafy laurel tree. It has grand themes: the rivalry of the gods, the power and danger of desire and the tragedy of unrequited love.

The story comes from the Metamorphoses by Roman poet Ovid, a rich source of myths based around the subject of transformation, and hugely popular with Renaissance artists and patrons. Cupid, taking revenge on Apollo for his teasing, struck the god with a golden arrow, igniting a fierce desire for Daphne. He struck Daphne with a lead-tipped arrow which made Apollo disgusting to her, despite his fame as the attractive young god of the sun. When he began to pursue her she fled across the hillside; pitying her, Peneus, her father and a river god, helped her to escape Apollo’s embrace by transforming her into a laurel tree.

Apollo’s speedy pursuit is brought to an abrupt halt as Daphne’s left leg becomes rooted to the ground – it is now a trunk, supporting the weight of the lush branches that have replaced her arms. He embraces her tightly around the waist, catching a last glimpse of her before he has even been able to stop running – his right leg and white drapery trail behind him. Daphne too has been frozen mid-stride. The slit in her dress reveals her shapely leg, suggestively intertwined, if only briefly, with his.

Ovid recounts how Apollo, somewhat pathetically, vowed to love her, even as a tree: ‘My hair, my lyre, my quiver shall always be entwined with thee, O laurel.’ Daphne is the ultimate example of unattainable love, celebrated in poetry by the fourteenth-century Italian poet Petrarch. His sonnets praising his beloved Laura, whose name is derived from laurel, were hugely popular among the Florentine elite. His love for Laura, who remained forever beyond his reach, became the ideal form of love in courtly circles, allowing young men to nobly strive for an ideal beauty beyond their reach. Apollo here is cast as the aristocratic youth in his elegant hunting outfit, woven with gold thread and encrusted with jewels. His quiver (the case for his arrows) hangs at his left side. Daphne is the ideal Petrarchan Renaissance beauty: fair-skinned, blonde and seemingly modest.

Pollaiuolo has set the myth in the Florentine countryside: in the background is the valley of the river Arno that runs through Florence – the distant city must be Florence itself. Miniature details, such as the hunt taking place just in front of the river, reflect courtly pastimes that would have appealed to the patrons but also echoed the story itself.

Once thought to be a side panel from a Renaissance cassone, the picture was probably made as an independent painting. The delicacy of the minute details, like the flowers scattered across the hillside and the reflection of the trees in the river, along with the subtle painting of the distant, hazy mountain range suggest it was made to be admired close up by an educated patron. A precious object, it may have been protected in a velvet bag between viewings. It might have been made for Lorenzo de' Medici, who adopted the laurel as part of his personal emblem and who associated himself with the fiery god Apollo.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Apollo and Daphne
Artist: Piero del Pollaiuolo
Artist dates: about 1441 - before 1496
Date made: probably 1470-80
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 29.5 × 20 cm
Acquisition credit: Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876
Inventory number: NG928
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: William Coningham

Wynn Ellis
Frame: 16th-century Italian Frame

Provenance

Acquired by William Coningham in Rome, 4 January, 1845; Sale, 9 June, 1849 (lot 28), bought by White. Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2008

Art and Love in Renaissance Italy

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

18 November 2008 - 16 February 2009

Kimbell Art Museum

15 March 2009 - 14 June 2009
2014

Making Colour

The National Gallery (London)

18 June 2014 - 7 September 2014
2014

Antonio e Piero del Pollaiolo. 'Nell'argento e nell'oro, in pittura e nel bronzo'

Museo Poldi Pezzoli

6 November 2014 - 16 February 2015
2015

Visions of Paradise: Botticini's Palmieri Altarpiece

The National Gallery (London)

4 November 2015 - 14 February 2016
2016

George Shaw: My Back to Nature

Abbot Hall Art Gallery

13 January 2017 - 11 March 2017

The Collection

4 November 2017 - 14 January 2018

Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery

27 January 2018 - 8 April 2018
2023

Masterpieces from the National Gallery

Shanghai Art Museum East

17 January 2023 - 7 May 2023

National Museum of Korea

2 June 2023 - 9 October 2023

Hong Kong Palace Museum

22 November 2023 - 11 April 2024

Chimei Museum

2 May 2024 - 1 September 2024

Bibliography

1849

Christie & Manson, Catalogue of the Very Choice and Important Collection of Italian Pictures, together with Four Capital English Works: The Property of William Coningham Esq., London, 9 June 1849
1894

H.C. Ulmann, 'Bilder und Zeichnungen der Brüder Pollajuoli', Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, XV, 1894, pp. 230-47
1903

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, Umbria, Florence and Siena, from the Second to the Sixteenth Century, ed. R.L. Douglas, 2nd edn, 6 vols, London 1903
1907

M. Cruttwell, Antonio Pollaiuolo, London 1907
1908

A. Schiaparelli, La casa fiorentina e i suoi arredi nei secoli XIV e XV, Florence 1908
1923

R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
1923

P. Schubring, Cassoni: Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Fruhrenaissance: Ein Beitrag zur Profanmalerei im Quattrocento, Leipzig 1923
1932

W. Stechow, Apollo und Daphne, Leipzig 1932
1938

B. Berenson, The Drawings of Florentine Painters, 2nd edn, Chicago 1938
1938

M. Wackernagel, Der Lebensraum des Künstlers in der florentinischen Renaissance, Leipzig 1938
1944

A. Sabatini, Antonio e Piero del Pollaiuolo, Florence 1944
1948

S. Ortolani, Il Pollaiuolo, Milan 1948
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1956

M.L. D'Ancona, 'Un' opera giovanile del Pollaiuolo già ascritta ad Andrea del Castagno', Rivista d'arte, XXXI, 1956, pp. 72-91
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1966

Ovid, Metamorphoses, ed. F.J. Miller, London 1966
1970

A. Busignani, Pollaiolo, Florence 1970
1978

L.D. Ettlinger, Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo: Complete Edition with a Critical Catalogue, Oxford 1978
1979

D. Sutton, 'Robert Langton Douglas, X: The Tribulations of an Editor', Apollo, CIX/207, 1979, pp. 348-65
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1987

Z. Nagy, 'Antonio del Pollaiuolo: Il piedistallo del Calvario di Mattia Corvino', Acta historiae artium, XXXIII, 1987, pp. 3-104
1990

A. Dülberg, Privatporträts: Geschichte und Ikonologie einer Gattung im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert., Berlin 1990
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1991

F. Haskell, 'William Coningham and His Collection of Old Masters', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXIII/1063, 1991, pp. 676-81
1992

A. Conti, Restauro, Milan 1992
1992

A. Wright, Studies in the Paintings of the Pollaiuolo, Phd Thesis, University of London 1992
1992

M. Gregori, Maestri e botteghe: Pittura a Firenze alla fine del Quattrocento (exh. cat. Palazzo Strozzi, 16 October 1992 - 10 January 1993), Florence 1992
1993

A. Walther, Von Göttern, Nymphen und Heroen: Die Mythen der Antike in der bildenden Kunst, Leipzig 1993
1994

N. Pons, I Pollaiuolo, Florence 1994
1997

Y. Even, 'Daphne (without Apollo) Reconsidered: Some Disregarded Images of Sexual Pursuit in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art', Studies in Iconography, XVIII, 1997, pp. 143-59
1998

P. Barolsky, 'As in Ovid, so in Renaissance Art', Renaissance Quarterly, LI/2, 1998, pp. 451-74
1999

P.L. Rubin and A. Wright, Renaissance Florence: The Art of the 1470s, (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 20 October 1999 - 19 January 2000), London 1999
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

F. Poletti, Antonio e Piero Pollaiolo, Milan 2001
2002

S. Adler, Lover's in Art, Berlin 2002
2002

L. Impelluso, Gods and Heroes in Art, Los Angeles 2002
2002

C. Allen, 'Ovid and Art', in P. Hardie (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ovid, Cambridge 2002, pp. 336-67
2003

A. Galli, 'Risarcimento di Piero del Pollaiolo', Prospettiva, CIX, 2003, pp. 27-58
2004

G. Dalli Regoli, 'Giusto risarcimento per Piero Pollaiolo, con juicio', Critica d'arte, LXVII/23-24, 2004, pp. 49-60
2005

A. Wright, The Pollaiuolo Brothers: The Arts of Florence and Rome, New Haven 2005
2007

P.L. Rubin, Images and Identity in Fifteenth-Century Florence, New Haven 2007
2008

G. Dalli Regoli, 'I "maltrattati" delle Vite vasariane: Riflessioni e marginali risarcimenti', Critica d'arte, LXX/33-34, 2008, pp. 9-33

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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Not on display