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Art Beyond Subjectivity

@JScotteswood

May 10 • 13 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X

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This isn’t just a myth.
It’s a mirror.

• Because it fails.
• Because it hurts.

Bernini sculpted a chase that ends in failure…
then lived one that ended in scandal.

He didn’t just imagine Apollo.
He became him.
Let me show you: 🧵👇

In Greece, he’s Apollon: god of sun and poetry.

In Rome, Apollo: master of arts.

She’s Daphne (Greek: “laurel”) or Dafne (Roman).

Eros/Cupid shot two arrows: love for him, rejection for her. 📸:Abs

Apollo wanted her forever.

Daphne swore to stay free, devoted to Artemis/Diana, goddess of the hunt.

When he caught up, she cried to her father, Peneus, a river god.

Her escape wasn’t death,

—it was transformation. 📸:Abs

At 24, Bernini took a block of Carrara marble and froze that moment.

Made for Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1622-1625), it’s Baroque brilliance.

Daphne’s fingers sprout leaves. Her toes root into earth.

Marble turns into flesh—then bark—before your eyes. 📸:Abs

Look closer: Apollo’s hand grazes her as she changes.

Her scream is silent, carved in stone.
Bernini didn’t just sculpt a scene…

—he captured time itself.

A split second of myth, made immortal.
🎥:Abs. (The video was perfect, Abs without modesty)👇

Ovid’s Metamorphoses gave Bernini the words.
He gave it life.

The wind twists Apollo’s hair. Daphne’s eyes widen in terror.

It’s not just art, t’s poetry in marble.
How did a 24-year-old pull this off?
📸:Abs

Compare it to Pollaiuolo’s painting: flat, distant, moralizing.

Or Poussin’s calm, classic scenes.
Bernini’s is raw,

— Apollo’s lust, Daphne’s fear leap out.
It’s not a picture. It’s a pulse.

In Catholic Rome, it was a lesson: virtue beats lust.

Daphne’s escape was her triumph.

But today? Scholars see her terror as a loss, her body traded for freedom.

Is it victory or tragedy?

Bernini lived it too.

He chased a married woman, attacked his brother in a rage, got fined by the Pope.

Was Apollo his mirror? A god obsessed, then broken?

— Art and life blur in the marble. 📸:Abs

It nearly left Rome, almost sold to Napoleon.

But it stayed, now shining in the Galleria Borghese.

Cleaned, studied, adored for 400 years.
A fragile miracle of survival. 📸:Abs

Why care?

It’s not just a statue—it’s us.

• Desire.
• Fear.
• Change.

Bernini makes you feel the myth in your bones.

In a world of quick scrolls, that’s power. 📸:Abs

Loved this?

— Follow @JScotteswood,

at Art Beyond Subjectivity for more art that hits deep.

What struck you most?👇👇

Bibliographic References:

• All the photos were taken by me, including the beautiful video haha

• COLLEZIONE GALLERIA BORGHESE. “Apollo and Daphne” – Bernini Gian
Lorenzo. Collezione Borghese Online Catalog. Available at:
collezionegalleriaborghese.it/en/opere/apoll….
Accessed: May 12, 2025.

• PIMENTEL, Antonio Marcos G. “Apollo and Daphne by Bernini: the
plausibility of Latin mythological literature in Baroque sculpture.” IV Art
History Meeting – IFCH/UNICAMP, Proceedings, 2008. Available at:
ifch.unicamp.br/eha/atas/2008/…
i.pdf.

• DI SEVO ROSA, Dafne. “The Myth of Daphne in the Sculptures of Bernini and
Lily Garafulic: Ideological Ramifications in the Baroque and Modernity.”
Revista Entrelaces, v.1, n.12, p.172-183, 2018. DOI: 10.36517/Entrelaces.12.13.
(Federal University of Ceará, Brazil).

• POLLAIUOLO, Piero (attrib.). “Apollo and Daphne” (c.1470–1480). Oil on
wood, 29.5 × 20 cm, National Gallery, London. In: História das Artes – Obras
analisadas, 2019. Available at: historiadasartes.com/apolo-dafne-
pollauiolo/.

• BERNINI, Gian Lorenzo. “Apollo and Daphne” (1622–25). Marble, 243 cm.
Galleria Borghese, Rome. Museum commentary in: FELICI, Sonja (ed.).
Bernini Scultore: la nascita del barocco in Casa Borghese. Rome, 1998/2017.

• WITTKOWER, Rudolf. Art and Architecture in Italy: 1600–1750. 4th ed. São
Paulo: WMF Martins Fontes, 2013. (Discussion of Apollo and Daphne, pp. 102–
104).

• HIBBARD, Howard. Bernini. New York: Penguin Books, 1990. (Chapter 2,
“The Early Borghese Sculptures,” analysis of Apollo and Daphne).

• OVID. Metamorphoses. Translated by David Medeiros. São Paulo: Hedra, 2009.
(Book I, verses 452–567: the story of Apollo and Daphne).

• GIRARD, Yves (quoted in BRUNEL, Pierre, ed.). Dictionary of Literary Myths.
Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio, 2005. (Entry “Daphne,” pp. 204–206).

• MANILLI, Giacomo. Villa Borghese fuori di Porta Pinciana (guide), Rome,
1650. (Original description of the placement of Apollo and Daphne, p. 70

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