Apollo und Daphne

This little panel was painted in Florence around 1470, when the Pollaiuolo brothers ran one of the busiest workshops in the city, prized above all for figures caught in motion. Here they froze the instant from Ovid where the nymph Daphne, fleeing the god Apollo, begins turning into a laurel tree. Look at her hands. They have already sprouted into full leafy branches, while her feet take root in the ground. Behind the two figures runs a soft green valley, the countryside of the Arno, the river of Florence itself, painted in the hazy blue the brothers liked for distance. Apollo still grips her waist, not yet understanding that the woman in his arms has become a tree.