Landscape with Apollo and Daphne, 1690 – 1710

Blatt: 226 x 278 mm

Physical Description: Black and white chalk, on dark blue paper

Inventory Number: 13673

Object Number: 13673 Z

Status: Request for presentation in the study room of the Prints and Drawings Department

Texts

About the Work

Chiaroscuro – literally, bright-and-dark – drawings were popular not only on account of their painterly aesthetic, but also because they demonstrated the draughtsman’s virtuosity. Here the artist used white and black chalk on paper of a medium shade: blue. In keeping with his customers’ wish for edifying subjects, he depicted a scene from Ovid’s "Metamorphoses". The god Apollo is chasing the water nymph Daphne, who flees from him and will ultimately transform into a laurel tree.