In this room, which in the time of Cardinal Scipione was furnished with the painting of Giulio Romano David killing Goliath, it is possible to admire one of the most wonderful sculptures in the world: Apollo and Daphne, perhaps Bernini’s masterpiece. The statue was inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphosis and represents Apollo capturing the nymph Daphne who transforms herself into a tree to escape the god. Like a director, Bernini carries out the act in three phases, in conformėty with the viewpoint of the observer.The metamorphosis theme is evident also in the beautiful painting of Dosso Dossi Circe the Enchantress who turned men into animals. The desperate Apollo playing the harp, cause he lost Daphne is also attributed to the same painter. Both the characters are also in the central scene of the vault, painted by Pietro Angeletti who realized the allegory of the seasons on either side of the vault (1780-1785). The frescos were painted by Giovanni Battista Marchetti.

DIDASCALIA: Daphne’s Metamorphosis To understand this statue, one must move around it, from right to left: the metamorphosis will take pIace before one’s very eyes. Behind Apollo one will see. the god leaning on a tree while Daphne disappears. The latin words engraved on the marble pedestal are by Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urbano VIII:" Quisquis amans sequitur fugitivae gaudia forma/Fronda manus implet baccas seu carpit amaras" (Who aims to follow the flying dreams of fun, will find his hands fulė of bitter leaves and berries).