Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari
(Rome 1654-1727)
Apollo and Daphne
Oil on canvas, cm 100,8×146
The work is part of a series of four splendid paintings inspired by themes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Along with the Apollo and Daphne are, in fact, also preserved in the Gallery scenes featuring the Meeting of Bacchus and Ariadne, as well as the Transformation of the Lycian Shepherds into Frogs and Mercury Entrusting Little Bacchus to the Nymphs.
Purchased by Cardinal Fabrizio, the “four Fables of Ovid” are mentioned in purchase documents between 1695 and 1699 and constitute one of the highest achievements of the Roman painter, whose art is characterized by a softened classicism full of harmony. Evidence of this is the light and graceful flight of Daphne, who, in order to escape Apollo, implores her father Peneus, god of running waters, to “dissolve the features for which I too much pleased.” Chiari chooses the moment when Daphne’s transformation has just begun and the first tender leaves sprout from the nymph’s fingers. The guilty Cupid, top left, flees, while the aquatic deities witness the metamorphosis into a laurel plant. All is grace in this brightly colored scene, which highlights an Arcadian reading of the art of Guido Reni, Carlo Maratti, Sacchi, and Trevisani.
