Apollo and Daphne Antique Painting Oil on Canvas XVIII Century

Oil on canvas. 18th-century Tuscan School. The large scene tells the tragic story of Apollo and Daphne, recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses. According to myth, the god Apollo, having mocked Cupid, is struck by him with an arrow of love, causing him to fall in love with the nymph Daphne, who is instead struck by a leaden arrow, capable of ending their love. Apollo, struck by the arrow, falls madly in love with Daphne and runs toward her, but the nymph rejects the god and runs away. To avoid being captured, Daphne asks her father Peneus, eponymous god of the river Peneus, to transform her so she will not have to submit to Apollo. Peneus listens to her request, and when Apollo is about to seize her, Daphne transforms into a laurel tree, a plant that from that moment on becomes sacred to the god. The work displays some similarities to the pictorial style of Giuseppe Zocchi (1711-1767), whom the artist likely drew upon in particular in the depiction of trees and vegetation. The canvas features several paint losses, especially in the lower left corner, and a series of holes (of varying sizes along the edges and in the center) caused by previous nails placed for reinforcement. Framed.