Apollo and Daphne Sculpture

A ceramic, oxide and glaze sculpture referencing the Greek myth of Apollo and Daphne in which the god grabs the nymph who transforms into a tree to prevent his unwanted sexual predations. The hands are sculpted from terracotta - not from moulds. The textures and colours are given with manganese oxide and a green glaze.
Probably the finest sculpture of this myth is Bernini's housed in the Vatican. Many artists have since (and before) used the myth as inspiration.
I had an unfired terracotta hand which I had decided not to use from a previous sculpture and determined to use it in this sculpture which I had been meaning to make for some years. As it transpired, by the time I had reformed, trimmed and rebuilt, it would have been just as quick to build it from new.
I like terracotta's ability to mimic flesh better than other clay bodies. It is always alarmingly brick-coloured when first out of the kiln but the application of oxides and glazes can bring back the humanity that it loses in the firing.