Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver of religious, allegorical and historical subjects, Godfried Maes was born in Antwerp in 1649. In 1665, he became a pupil of Pieter van Lint (1609-1690). In 1672, he was admitted a master of the Antwerp guild of St. Luke, for which he painted The Seven Liberal Arts now in the Royal Museum of Fine Art in Antwerp. He received numerous altarpiece commissions from the Catholic Netherlands, such as the Last Supper painted in 1697 for the St. Gertrudis Church in Utrecht, or the Four Evangelists for the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw Church in Vilvoorde. In 1675, he married Josina Baeckeland and became a dean of the Antwerp Academy in 1682. Such as several artists from the seventeenth century in Antwerp, Godfried Maes was influenced by the style and compositions of Pieter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).
The present drawing representing Apollo and Cupid was part of a complete series of 83 illustrations made by Godfried Maes after Ovid’s Metamorphoses, probably for the project of a new publication, which unfortunately never saw the light of day. The episode of Apollo and Cupid takes place at the beginning of the story of Apollo and Daphne. It explains how Cupid’s revenge caused their unfortunate love: Apollo “proud in victory saw Cupid draw his bow’s taut arc, and said: Mischievous boy, what are a brave man’s arms to you? That gear becomes my shoulders best. My aim is sure; I wound my enemies, I wound wild beasts; my countless arrows slew but now the bloated Python, whose vast coils across so many acres spread their blight. You and your loves! You have you torch to light them. Let that content you; never claim my fame!” Then, Cupid took two arrows, one made of gold and the other of lead; with the leaden shaft, to incite hatred, he shot the nymph Daphne and with the golden one, to incite love, he shot Apollo through the heart.
