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Apollo and Daphne
Gerard Hoetc.1700
Dulwich Picture Gallery
London, United Kingdom
Taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, this scene shows the nymph Daphne fleeing from Apollo. In her flight, Daphne calls upon the aid of her father, the river god Peneus, and is transformed into a laurel tree just before Apollo reaches her.
Both this painting and its pair DPG 179, also displayed on this wall, personify the theme of rejected love, dramatized by the wild pursuits of Pan and Apollo. They are ultimately exempla of the victory of Chastity, using pagan subject matter to convey a key Christian virtue.
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Details
- Title: Apollo and Daphne
- Creator Lifespan: 1648 - 1733
- Date: c.1700
- Physical Dimensions: w473 x h384 cm
- Type: Painting
- Medium: Oil
- null: Browning had these pictures in mind in his poem on Lairesse.Cleaning revealed the signature in the 1940s. The subject from Ovid, Metamorphoses (I, v).
- Work Nationality: Dutch
- Support: Canvas
- Provenance: London, Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1811; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811 (as Lairesse).
- Inscriptions: Signed, bottom right: 'G. Hoet'
- Further Information: Gerard Hoet primarily specialised in small-scale Arcadian landscapes in the style of Poelenburch, but he also produced works on religious, mythological and classical themes, as well as portraits, genre scenes, and illustrations for Bibles. Mythological scenes such as Apollo and Daphne allowed for a more overtly sensual depiction of the characters than would have been appropriate for religious subjects.
- Artist: Hoet, Gerard
- Acquisition Method: Bourgeois, Sir Peter Francis (Bequest, 1811)
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