Apollo and Daphne

The nymph Daphne, fleeing from Apollo’s
amorous advances, and in the process of being transformed into a laurel
tree thanks to an enchantment cast upon her by her father, the god
Peneus, whom she begged help save her—is one of the most frequently
depicted episodes in painting taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The scene to the right, in the distance, showing a man next to the burning thatched building also alludes to the Metamorphoses.

The painting comes from the collection of an outstanding connoisseur
and bibliophile, Karl Heinrich von Heinecken (1706–1791), curator at the
Gemäldegalerie and Kupferstichkabinett in Dresden. The painting
came into the collection of Stanisław August at the end of 1782 at the
latest, as it is recorded in the catalogue of the king’s collection
drawn up in January 1783. It is, however, more likely that it was bought
in the 1770s with the intermediation of the former owner, Karl von
Heinecken—Marcello Bacciarelli’s mentor and friend.

Luti painted mostly historical and religious pieces in the Baroque grande manière.His oeuvre contains relatively fewer mythological compositions. Bowron dates Apollo and Daphne to
1707–08. In this period, Luti’s art came under the influence of Carlo
Maratta, and he gradually moved away from the spontaneity and richness
of the Baroque language in favour of the classical manner, which is
characteristic of his later works. These paintings contain fewer
figures, the composition is more ordered, with more emphasis on the
purity of form and a balanced and subtle palette. Maratta’s style
influenced Luti’s large format religious paintings as well as his small
cabinet pictures on mythological subjects. It is obvious that Luti’s Apollo and Daphne—the
nymph raising her hands in a characteristic gesture—was inspired by
Maratta’s famous painting on the same subject. [See D. Juszczak, H.
Małachowicz, The Stanisław August Collection of Paintings at the Royal Łazienki. Catalogue, Royal Łazienki Museum, Warsaw 2016, no. 66, p. 255.]