Apollo and Daphne (Pollaiolo)

Apollo and Daphne is a c.1470–1480 oil on panel painting, attributed to Piero del Pollaiolo and/or his brother Antonio). William Coningham acquired it in Rome in 1845 and in 1876 Wynne Ellis left it to the National Gallery, London, where it still hangs.[1] It shows Daphne's transformation into a laurel tree to escape Apollo in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Its choice of wood as a support and its small dimensions mean that it was long mistaken as a fragment of a decorative cassone.[2] Like The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian it was also long attributed to Antonio but is now usually attributed to Piero. The background vegetation was previously brighter but is now irreversibly oxidized.[3]

References
  1. "Piero del Pollaiuolo | Apollo and Daphne". National Gallery, London. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  2. Aldo Galli, I Pollaiolo, collana "Galleria delle arti" n.7, Milano, 5 Continents Editions, 2005, p. 36 ISBN 88-7439-115-3
  3. Louise Govier, The National Gallery, guida per i visitatori, Louise Rice, London 2009. ISBN 9781857094701

Further reading
  • Freedman, Luba (2011–2012). "Apollo and Daphne by Antonio del Pollaiuolo and the Poetry of Lorenzo de' Medici". Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. 56/57: 213–242. JSTOR 24616442.
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