Cleveland Museum of Art

Copy after Giulio Romano's Fall of Icarus

Date

after 1536

Medium

pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over red chalk, heightened with lead white

Culture

Italy, 16th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Having flown too close to the sun, Icarus plummets from the sky as the wax securing his makeshift wings melts, and the straps unravel. His father Daedelus, who invented the wings, watches in horror as his son begins a deadly fall. Punished for failing to heed his father’s warning and attempting to enter the realm of the gods, Icarus was a moral reminder to Renaissance viewers of human fallibility and the risks of excessive pride.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.