Icarus . Son of Daedalus who dared to fly too near the sun on wings of feathers and wax. Daedalus had been imprisoned by King Minos of Crete within the walls of his own invention, the Labyrinth. But the great craftsman's genius would not suffer captivity. He made two pairs of wings by adhering feathers to a wooden frame with wax. Giving one pair to his son, he cautioned him that flying too near the sun would cause the wax to melt. But Icarus became ecstatic with the ability to fly and forgot his father's warning. The feathers came loose and Icarus plunged to his death in the sea. The Fall of Icarus
Peter Paul Rubens - 1636
The Fall of Icarus
Laurent de La Hyre - Date unknown
Lament for Icarus
Herbert James Draper - 1898
Study for Daedalus Attaching Icarus' Wings
Joseph Marie Vien - circa 1754
Daedalus Attaching Icarus' Wings
Joseph Marie Vien - circa 1754
Henri Matisse: The Fall of Icarus (1947)
Icarus (Henri Matisse,1947)
Landscape with the Fall of IcarusWilliam Carlos Williams, 1883 - 1963
According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring
a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry
of the year was
awake tingling
near
the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself
sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings’ wax
unsignificantly
off the coast
there was
a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning