Château d'Écouen museum displays works of some of the most celebrated goldsmiths and silversmiths of the Renaissance. One notable example is the statuette of [[Daphne]] by [[Wenzel Jamnitzer]], a German craftsman from [[Nuremberg]], and the goldsmith to the Holy Roman emperors. It was made between 1569 and 1576. It depicts the Greek mythological story of [[Apollo and Daphne]] from the "Metamorphoses" of [[Ovid]], which was a popular subject in the Renaissance. The nymph Daphne is transformed into a laurel tree by her father, to protect her from the pursuit of [[Apollo]]. The statuette is made of gilded silver, with branches made of
Pygmy (Greek mythology) Pygmy (Greek mythology) The Pygmies ( "Pygmaioi", from the adjective πυγμαῖος from πυγμή "pygmē", "the length of the forearm") were a tribe of diminutive humans in Greek mythology. According to the Iliad, they were involved in a constant war with the cranes, which migrated in winter to their homeland on the southern shores of the earth-encircling river Oceanus. One story describes the origin of the age-old battle, speaking of a Pygmy Queen named Gerana who offended the goddess Hera with her boasts of superior beauty, and was transformed into a crane. In art the scene was popular with little Pygmies