Apollo and Daphne

The Apollo and Daphne baroque sculpture by Bernini, located in Borghese Gallery was my absolute favorite thus far. Not only was every detail absolutely breath taking, as was the story behind it which made the sculpture come to life. The story goes that Apollo, who is the god of prophecy, saw Cupid, the god of love, when Cupid wounds Apollo with his arrow. This wounding caused Apollo to fall in love with the daughter of the God of the River, known as Peneus. His daughter Daphne was also wounded by Cupid, who thought doing so would cause her to be in favor of Apollo. Apollo tries and pleads to Daphne in order to fill his burning desire. Daphne is not in favor of the idea at all and tries to flee, but as she tries to run Apollo is even more in love. Daphne cries to her father for help just as Apollo grabs her, which is what the sculpture is portraying. As this happens Daphne's skin begins to turn to bark, her hair becomes leaves, arms become branches, her feet turn into roots, and her face becomes the tree top. This display of Daphne as a laurel tree was absolutely stunning. Every detail was intricitley carved to resemble a literal human tree. What was extremely astonishing to me was the way even her toe nails were accented to become growing in to tree roots. When standing there we were told that the statue used to be in the right position in front of a window which when the wind blew on it, it even created a whistling noise. Whether this is true, I am not sure, but the noise would only add more truth to the story.