Cardinal Borghese Views Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, by Carolyn Raphael

Apollo and Daphne, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italy) 1622-25

Cardinal Borghese Views Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne
 
1625, Rome. Cardinal Scipione Borghese finally sees young Bernini’s finished marble sculpture of Apollo and Daphne. (He was only 27.) It is the last of four sculptures that the cardinal had commissioned from the great sculptor for his Villa Borghese.
 
At last, Bernini, and fully worth the wait.
Of course, the other three are wonders too:
The fierce abduction of Proserpina by Pluto,
Aeneas leading his family out of Troy,
Tense David as he releases Goliath’s doom.
All of them carved with scrupulous detail.
 
In preparation for Apollo and Daphne
You clearly read the Metamorphoses,
Where Ovid spins his tales of transformation.
Now let me see if I recall correctly.
The god Apollo insults and angers Cupid
Who strikes him with a magic golden arrow, 
Arousing love for Daphne, virgin nymph,
A follower of the chaste goddess Diana.   
When pierced by Cupid’s lead arrow that spurns love,  
Young Daphne flees the ardent god. As soon as 
He overtakes her, she begs her river-god father
To change her body, and thus preserve her virtue.
And so he does, transforming her just in time.
I stare at her toes becoming roots, her hair
And hands becoming leaves on slender branches,
Her quaking flesh the bark of the laurel tree.
While some say it was love, while some say lust,                                       
Apollo named the tree his sacred symbol,
Decreeing evergreen laurel wreaths for victors.
Superb detail, Bernini, such delicate leaves.
You say one should view it from the right. Ah yes,
I feel the movement now, the wind of the chase,
The magnitude of Daphne’s open-mouthed terror.
 
Of course these myths can captivate the senses,
And that is why Pope Urban VIII affixed
A carved tablet to the finished statue’s base,
To warn us of the dangers of seeking pleasure.*
But back to your achievement. All will say
That it is a marvel, but I will be the first.
 
Carolyn Raphael

*The presence of this pagan myth in the Cardinal's villa was justified by a moral couplet composed in Latin by Pope Urban VIII and engraved on the cartouche on the base, which says: "Those who love to pursue fleeting forms of pleasure, in the end find only leaves and bitter berries in their hands.”
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The quotation is reproduced with permission from the Web Gallery of Art (https://www.wga.hu/) The photograph of Apollo and Daphne is also reproduced with permission from the Web Gallery of Art.

Carolyn Raphael retired from the English Department at Queensborough Community College, CUNY, after more than thirty years of teaching. Her poems have appeared in journals including Oberon, Measure, and Mezzo Cammin. She is the author of five poetry books, the latest of which is Travelers on My Route, published by Kelsay books in 2023.  She is the poetry coordinator of Great Neck Plaza in Great Neck, New York, where she works with Mayor Ted Rosen to organize the popular annual poetry contest and awards reading. Her website is carolynraphaelpoetry.com