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
Crocus (mythology) Crocus (mythology) In Classical mythology, Crocus () was a mortal youth who, because he was unhappy with his love affair with the nymph Smilax, was turned by the gods into a plant bearing his name, the crocus (saffron). Smilax is believed to have been given a similar fate and transformed into bindweed. In another variation of the myth, Crocus was said to be a companion of Hermes and was accidentally killed by the god in a game of discus. Hermes was so distraught at this that he and Chloris transformed Crocus' body into a flower. The myth is similar to