Wooded landscape with Apollo and Daphne

Gaspard Dughet — Poussin's brother-in-law — was one of the most influential landscape painters of 17th-century Rome, specializing in the dramatic, storm-laden scenery of the Roman campagna and the Alban Hills. This wooded landscape incorporating Apollo and Daphne introduces mythological figures into a setting that dominates the composition, reversing the usual hierarchy. Dughet's landscapes helped shape the European ideal of the heroic Roman landscape, influencing both his contemporaries and the following generation of painters.

The landscape is characterized by Dughet's signature combination of dense foreground vegetation, broken sunlight penetrating through the canopy, and a deep atmospheric recession. The mythological figures of Apollo and Daphne occupy a middle-ground clearing, small against the surrounding nature.