This colorful and abstract painting was created by George Desvallières (c. 1861-1950), and its image was released to the public by the Musée de Reims and the Desvallières family under a Creative Commons 2.0 license. The artwork re-creates a famous myth of the ancient god, Apollo, and his pursuit of a nymph named Daphne. As the story goes, Daphne had the misfortune of being near the gods, Apollo and Cupid, while the two archer-deities insulted each other in an argument over which of them had a better claim to their favorite weapon, the bow. Apollo won the verbal debate, but Cupid was eager to seek revenge. Flexing his sensual powers, Cupid roped in the innocent bystander, Daphne, to unknowingly participate in a palpable display of the power that desire has even over the gods. According to the tale, Cupid forced Apollo to fall in love with Daphne, who, in turn, was conversely inspired by the love-god to reject all erotic urges. And so, a chase began in which lustful Apollo relentlessly tried to overtake the unreciprocating and terrified Daphne.
Unfortunately, the fatigued nymph could not outrun her fleet-footed pursuer forever, and as the artwork portrays, Apollo was eventually able to overrun his prey. In the end, the only way for Daphne to escape the clutches of Apollo was for the nymph to plead for help from her river-god father, Penéüs, and muster all of her own power as a nymph in order to bring about a supernatural solution to her predicament. As the story goes, Daphne ultimately thwarted Apollo’s desires by transforming herself into a laurel tree. Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE), a Roman poet, described the transformation, writing:
“She hardly ended her prayer when a heavy numbness
came over her body; her soft white bosom was ringed in a layer
of bark, her hair was turned into foliage, her arms into branches.
The feet that had run so nimbly were sunk into sluggish roots;
her head was confined in a treetop; and all that remained was her beauty.
Tree though she was, Apollo still loved her.”
(Ovid, Metamorphoses, book 1, approximately lines 548-553)
It is the end of the chase and Daphne’s transformation into a laurel tree that George Desvallières re-creates. Daphne can be seen mid-metamorphosis, with her feet and legs being encased in wood as nearby Apollo watches with his arms in the air. Although Apollo could not fulfill his Cupid-inspired passions, his devotion to Daphne was said to have continued. The complicated relationship between the god and Daphne evolved into Apollo having a newfound platonic affection for laurels.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Sources:
- Metamorphoses by Ovid. Translated by David Raeburn. Penguin Classics; Revised Edition, 2004.
- https://musees-reims.fr/oeuvre/apollon-et-daphne
