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Apollo and Daphne Hall


Apollo and Daphne Hall

The Apollo and Daphne Hall features episodes from Ovid’s The Metamorphoses in painting and sculpture. Daphne (in ancient Greek, the nymph’s word means “laurel”) was transformed into a laurel bush to escape the god Apollo, who proclaimed the plant sacred for his worship. It consequently became used to mark victory. Considered a quintessentially noble plant, it was customarily grown in imperial gardens: Roman emperors would girdle their heads with laurel made like a crown to mark triumphs and ceremonies.

As in the myth of Daphne an evergreen plant like laurel takes on the meaning of perpetual life, so Penone’s work, which is itself nature, enacts a metamorphosis.

Breathing, we inhale the scent of the tree. The action of breathing makes sculpture.

 

Breath is sculpture.

The sculpture of intrusive stone,

branches growing, 

the casting of bronze.

Giuseppe Penone




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