I’ve always been intrigued by the story of Apollo and Daphne. For those of you unfamiliar with the Greek myth, Apollo insulted Eros (Cupid) for playing with bows & arrows. In retaliation, Eros shoots Apollo through the heart with a golden arrow, to incite love, and he shoots Daphne, a nymph, with a lead arrow, to incite hatred. Apollo fell deeply in love with Daphne, while she despised him. In a chase between Apollo and Daphne, with Apollo quickly gaining ground, the fearful nymph begs her father to save her, and he does so by turning her into a laurel tree. Even in the form of a tree, Apollo loves her and so gives her eternal youth and immortality as an evergreen tree.
I can’t remember how my interest for this story first started…whether it was from seeing John William Waterhouse’s painting in a book when I was a teenager doing a project on the Pre-Raphaelites, or when I studied the sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in an art history class during my undergraduate degree. It was one or the other, but my first introduction to this story was through its representation in art, which I’ve found is often times the case to many stories and histories that I’ve learned.
These two particular representations have always been my favourite, as this story has been interpreted many times in different art forms. I think it is the movement in the figures, frozen in their chase, and the lust in Apollo’s eyes vs. the fear in Daphne’s. I’ve been lucky enough to see Bernini’s sculpture at the amazing Galleria Borghese in Rome, and it was definitely awe-inspiring for me.
My newest drawing, Daphne’s Metamorphosis, is not the first time I’ve touched on this story. I actually did a sketch and diptych painting during my Master’s degree while in London based on this story, but I never really liked how the painting turned out.
With my new drawing, I kept with the look of the myth-themed series I’m currently developing. I knew I wanted to paint a wolf in this series at some point, and it was by chance that one of the animals associated with Apollo was a wolf. I feel Daphne is a bit more knowing, looking directly at the viewer, and stronger in my rendition than past painted depictions – there is a certain look in her eye and a hint of a smile that she knows what she is doing and she is in control.
In this sense, I feel that this drawing is more similar to Antonio del Pollaiolo’s painting of Daphne than Waterhouse’s or Bernini’s, although I was never particularly fond of this painting, as I saw it quite a few times at the National Gallery in London. It’s all the more curious then that of the three art history works based on this story, the Pollaiolo’s has influenced my version the most, especially with the poses.
I will be working on the painted version of Daphne’s Metamorphosis while in Banff. In the meantime, you can view more photos of my drawing on my updated website, in the Sketch Book & Drawings section.