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Apollo standing at left shooting a python with an arrow, above to the left are the muses and at right on a cloud Cupid approaching Apollo, from "Story of Apollo and Daphne"

1530–60
Not on view
According to Ovid (Metamorphoses 1.253-444), Jupiter destroyed the violent race that arose from the blood of the Giants with a universal flood. When the waters receded, the monstrous Python emerged and was slain by Apollo, as seen in the foreground of this engraving. In the background, Apollo, in the pride of his victory, mocks Cupid (the Greek Eros) for attempting to wield the bow, a weapon unsuited to his diminutive stature. To the left, Cupid exacts his revenge, aiming at Apollo's heart the golden arrow that inflicts love. Cupid has already shot the nymph Daphne-seen in the distance leading the life of a virgin huntress-but with a lead-tipped arrow that has made her hostile to love.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Apollo standing at left shooting a python with an arrow, above to the left are the muses and at right on a cloud Cupid approaching Apollo, from "Story of Apollo and Daphne"
  • Series/Portfolio: Story of Apollo and Daphne
  • Artist: Master of the Die (Italian, active Rome, ca. 1530–60)
  • Artist: After Baldassarre Tommaso Peruzzi (Italian, Ancaiano 1481–1536 Rome)
  • Date: 1530–60
  • Medium: Engraving
  • Dimensions: sheet: 7 1/8 x 9 5/8 in. (18.1 x 24.4 cm) approximately
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
  • Object Number: 49.97.323
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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