This charm was caused when Bernini hear the story of this two people, which recounts how one day Apollo (God of Light and Poetry) teased an arrow-wielding Cupid, calling him too young a boy to be fit to handle such dangerous weapons. Out of spite, Cupid then pricked him with one of his amour-inducing arrows, causing the god to fall madly in love with the passing-by river nymph Daphne. However, Daphne was devoted to the goddess Diana, and had resolved never to marry and to remain a virgin for her entire life.
When Apollo pursued her, driven by his lust, she ran away in panic, calling to her father the river God to help her. He heeded her prayer by transforming her into a laurel tree. Apollo declared that if she would never be his wife, she would at least be his tree, and it is for this reason that he imbued the tree with eternal youth and adopted the crown of laurel leaves, which subsequently became the symbol of Olympic victories and Roman emperors.
Bernini became a fan of Apollo and Dafne and decided to turn them into Stone. In this way he could see them everyday and be a winner because he had part of Dafne and the laurel tree.
Now we can see the sculpture in the gallery. Bernini thought very well the charm so if we obseve clear this work we can see that Daphne is in the process of becoming a tree, with bark creeping over her legs and leaves and branches sprouting out of her fingers.
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