Daphne

Artist: Josep Maria Subirachs

Title: «Daphne»

Year: 1979

Media: bronze

Edition: 9 copies

Size: 74,4 x 39,5 x 23 cm

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Bronze sculpture from the period of the new figuration. Subirachs rediscovers the classic myth of Apollo and Daphne, immortalizing the moment in which the nymph is transformed into a laurel. The sculpture is highly dynamic, both because it shows the beginning of a change in a body and because of the Praxitelian curve with which the theme has been resolved. The author will use the same theme in other homonymous works from later years.

The actual imprint of the artist’s hand is a thematic resource that he has used a few times. However, what makes this work especially remarkable is the fact that the female torso ceases to be the torso with classical roots that until now presided over the mature Subiraquian work and becomes a stylized and asymmetrical torso, in line with his early works (for example Claudia Chauchat, 1950). This, and the detail of the laurel leaves, mark the beginning of the break with the rigidity of the last Subirachs, but without signifying a sudden and incoherent turn from his own aesthetic tradition.

Francesc Fontbona, 1980