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“Naturalia“ and “artificalia“ – a miracle of Nature and a human artifact – are combined in this statuette. This woman with the proud bearing, and dressed as an ancient Roman, is Daphne. Most famously, the great Roman poet Ovid immortalised her fate. He tells of Apollo the sun-god’s passion for the chaste nymph in his Metamorphoses. To escape Apollo’s advances, Daphne begged her father, the river-god Peneius, to change her into a bay-tree.

This myth has fascinated many artists. The moment of transformation is represented here by a branch of coral, which is growing out of Daphne’s head, instead of branches and leaves. Her arms also end in coral branches. In Greek mythology, coral is also the result of a metamorphosis. As drops of blood from the head of the decapitated Medusa spilt into the Mediterranean, they supposedly turned into coral. During the Middle Ages, coral was considered to be, at one and the same time, a mineral, an animal and a plant. Thus it symbolised the link between the three kingdoms of Nature.

This figure was designed by the Nuremberg goldsmith Wenzel Jamnitzer, one of the most important representatives of his craft in the 16th century. In addition to his practical work, Jamnitzer devoted himself to questions of algebra and geometry, and created ingenious scientific instruments. His original Daphne statuette is in the French town of Ecouen. But his son, Abraham, used the plaster casts from the Jamnitzer workshop to reproduce the statuette exactly – which is the copy you see here.

The figure of Daphne can be separated at the waist. The lower half is hollow and can be used as a drinking vessel. However, this beautiful example of the goldsmith’s art was certainly never used to drink from. It fulfilled a purely representative function.