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Divine calamities

Fourteen gilded stucco reliefs in the “New Rooms” show representations of the Metamorphoses written by the Roman poet Ovid; they bear witness to the host’s ambition to stage his regency in the traditions of classical antiquity. Not for nothing it is said that whoever wants to understand Sanssouci has to study the literature of classical Rom and Greece.
Transformations are the topic of the Metamorphoses – usually a human or a deity is transformed into a plant, an animal or a constellation. While Apollo courts Daphne to no avail – she escapes his courtship by turning into a bay tree – he himself rejects the advances of Clythia. Inconsolable she sits down on a rock, refuses to eat and drink and finally becomes a sun flower which constantly follows the path of the solar chariot. In one scene Apollo touches the flower with his left hand; in his right hand, the god of muses carries a lyre.