Apollo and Daphne

In order to execute the David, completed in a fury of excitement within a few months, Bernini interrupted this group (1622-1625), which was to become the most celebrated of his fables, so much so that it made him admired throughout Rome: «as he walked through the city, he drew the eyes of everyone, who looked at him and pointed him out to others as a prodigy...». It was the consecration of the new genius, an extreme exaltation that, apart from brief periods of shadow, was to accompany him all his life. From the cardinal's protection the young artist was now ready to pass to the role of leading actor in the sumptuous Rome of the Barberini and the Chigi. Once again the sculptor poses the figures in opposite and complementary rhythms, composed on subtly varied modules of the geometric scheme of the broken arch.