French school circa 1700. Daphne pursued by Apollo. Marble relief. Bears an antique label: "le garde meuble public bedel cie et le n° 41669". (Accidents and restorations.) Height 40.5 cm; Width: 36.5 cm. Daphne, frightened and pursued by Apollo's ardour, sees her father, the river god Peneus, appear. As she flees, she begs her father to take away her beauty, which is becoming fatal to her, and asks him to protect her from this over-pressing suitor. Suddenly, her limbs go numb, her hair turns to foliage, her arms stretch out like twigs and her feet become roots. She has metamorphosed into a laurel tree to escape Apollo's violent passion. From that day on, the laurel will be Apollo's sacred tree and the laurel wreath will adorn the foreheads of warriors. Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) on canvas and Bernini (1598-1680) in marble gave us the most famous and inspired representations of this episode from Greek mythology. The artist of our beautiful relief is undoubtedly familiar with these two brilliant versions, and has drawn inspiration from both Poussin's measured classicism and Bernini's resounding baroque style to create a work that conforms to the codes of French classicism advocated at Versailles by Charles Le Brun. Expert : Cabinet LACROIX & JEANNEST