Lesson 6: Apollo and Daphne by Bernini

I missed part of the lecture (Damn you Questura!) so my notes are not really complete.

Narcissus=Painting- Fell in love with his reflection. He fell in love with the reflection.

The birth of music= Pan
The birth of Sculpture= Daphne
The birth of painting = Narcissus


Flight from Troy 1619-20


Rape of Persephone 1622
• 3 headed dog, Pluto and Persephone
• This group is based on Renaissance sculpture
o Ex. Herculese and Antens
• This is seen in the X composition. The figures are in an explosive embrace. They are in all different directions.
 There is the holding/blinding attack with bronze statuatte.
• Rape of the Sabines by Gian Bologna
 Loggiadei Lanzi, Pizza della signorina. He was bornin Florence. There are the spiraling of three figures vs the walk around narrative. It has a clear point of view.
• This shows the beauty of the controposto with shows the mastery of art. It also shows the contortion of the body.

Apollo and Daphne


This represent the Metamorphoses. As we walk around the statue, the story unfolds. We see that the protagonists do not know exactly what is going on.

They had to forbid the touching of the sculpture. They were touching as Apollo is touching Daphne or as Pluto is touching Persephone. The frustrated and consumed love is seen. The sculpture is so close to human flesh it is almost a dematerialized sculpture. He creates a dematerialization. This is incredible because his marble almost becomes fleshy.

Alberti on sculpture. You have to try to create out of the marble block some kind of tree trunk. Out of this, try to create a human form. Bernini is almost going against the rules. He is also most reversing the kind of metamorphosis.

The story of Apollo and Daphne must be studied in sections. The metamophosis by Ovid was Christianized. France had “the moralized Ovid.” The story of Apollo and Daphne was completely discussed. It was seen as a symbol of chastity. Daphne kept her chastity and wanted to become another kind of object, she was seen as a symbol of chastity. In the 14th century the greatest poet Petrach wrote about Daphne. He talked of Laura = Laurel. When Petrach sings the beauty of Laura, he is singing about Daphne. Laura was the angelic woman. Angelic women were unattainable. Petrach sees the woman at a distance. He is always trying to kiss her and touch her, but she is always a daphne. She would escape from the arms of the poets. It is out of the suffering that Petrach writes these love poems.

Cardinal Barberini wrote a poem on the pedestal of Apollo and Daphne. It is on a dragon. “Whoever chases beauty will taste bitterness.” The little fruit of laurel is very bitter. This inscription is on a dragon. Dragon was the symbol of the Borghese family.

You can tell that he love Daphne.
Marino. a writer= associated with sensuality. = Baci

Is the cardinal talking about petrach or does he stand with Marino? Bernini was trying to create a manifesto. This was a demonstration piece. We cannot decided if it is the sensuality of marble of the frustrated touch. Bernini is uses marble and not words to describe the metamorphosis. This is very difficult. Her hair was full of laurel leaves. It is almost transparent. How is the possible? Apollo’s hand is touching her. The skin of Daphne is pulsating.
This is not just the Apollo, but the Apollo Belvedere.

Where was this originally located.
The foot of Apollo was against the wall. You would have seen a man chasing a woman. If you start turning around the sculpture, you can look at the metamorphosis unfolding. It was like a virtual tour. The frontal position would be the embrace of Apollo. When you get on the other side, you see the tree taking over. Once you have competed it, you can only see the breast of Daphne which is the last symbol of a woman. You see a man chasing a tree at the end.

This sculpture summarizes the baroque problems. What are they?
• The sculpture is supposed to evoke so many ideas at once.
o Almost as if there is a slow fuse of many things together that is almost too hard to decipher. Bernini was about to incorporate all of this in one piece of marble.
• There is awhole traditionof Italian and ancient sculpture reappearing.
• Sculpture echoes antiquity in the renaissance, poetry, and painting.
• The “paragone” at its best.
o The competition among the arts at its best by means of compilation, synthesis and evocation.
o “Paragone”, compilation and the tour around the sculpture
o There is a precise idea for this. This is why the location in the room is very important.

The protagonists do not know what is going on. She has no idea as to what is happening to her. Apollo – we cannot say if he is happy or sad. If you look carefully, you realize that this is the image of the passage of happiness to sorrow. From the moment in which Apollo is happy because he is reaching his lover to the moment in which he is understanding that something is about to happen and is happening at that moment. It is the very suspension. The suspended moment of what was before and what was going to be later. These are the themes of baroque art. Most of the sculptures of the baroque are like this. They are Dramatic and problematic.
Bernini was about 25.