RUBENS, Peter Paul (b. 1577, Siegen, d. 1640, Antwerpen) The
Fall of Icarus1636 Oil on wood, 27 x 27 cm Musées Royaux des
Beaux-Arts, Brussels Architect and sculptor Daedalus had built
the Cretan labyrinth for King Minos in order to imprison the
minotaur. He too was then imprisoned in it by the monarch's
order. Wishing to leave the island with his son Icarus, he made
two pairs of wings similar to those of birds, using feathers
attached with wax. Forgetting his father's advice, Icarus flew
too close to the sun, melting the wax of his wings and falling
into the sea. Daedalus watches his son's fall despairingly,
unable to save him. The Fall of Icarus is another of the
sketches that Peter Paul Rubens produced from 1636 onwards for
the decoration of the Torre de la Parada. In it he chooses to
illustrate the most dramatic moment of Ovid's narrative, when
Daedalus looks towards Icarus falling headlong into the void.
The painter confers a highly human dimension to his work by
representing the painful loss of a son. A