ATTRIBUTED TO GIACINTO GIMIGNANI (1606-1681)
Apollo and Daphne
Canvas
112x148 inch
old restorations
Our canvas is characteristic of the neo-Venetian current which developed in Rome during the years 1625-1640, marked by a return to classicism mixed with memories of Titian,
in the light range, the silver tree trunks or in the golden tone of the landscape.
Pier Francesco Mola, Andrea Sacchi and the young Nicolas Poussin are the main protagonists.
A pupil of Pierre de Cortona, Giacinto Gimignani also adopted this style, as evidenced by the little cupid on the left, reminiscent of the putti in the works of the French painter ("The Poet's Inspiration", Louvre).
Similar typologies and faces, the boldly colored draperies wrapped around naked bodies, are found in several of Gimignani's paintings from this period (Venus Appears in Aeneas and Achates, private collection; An Angel and a Devil Fighting for the Soul of a child, private collection).
The format is that characteristic of paintings intended for the galleries of Roman amateurs and nobles. Its mythological subject, taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses, shows the young nymph Daphne, pursued by Apollo, and transforming herself into a laurel to escape him.
He was wanted in the Eternal City following the triumph of Bernini's sculpture (Borghese Gallery) ten years earlier. The scene is completed with an allegory
of the river god, the Tiber.
Full Description