THE MYTH OF DAEDALUS AND ICARUS

The myth of Daedalus and Icarus has inspired a number of artists to make their works of art. Many paintings, sculptures and poems have

the theme of the myth.Let’s have a look at some of them.

wall painting from Pompeii: The Fall of Icarus.

What can you see in the wall painting?

Who do you think are the people up in the sky?

What are the people by the sea saying?

Peter Paul Rubens: Fall of Icarus (c. 1636-1638).

What is the main color used by the artist? Why?

What does this painting focus on?

Daedalus constructs wings for Icarus.painting by Andrea Sacchi

How is this painting different from the other two?

How do you think Daedalus feels?

What does Icarus think?

Daedalus watches Icarus fall

What can you see in the picture?

How is Icarus presented in this painting?

Marc Chagall: The Fall of Icarus (1975).

How is this painting different from the others?

What can you see at the bottom of the painting?

How is the sun seen here?

Pieter Brueghel the elder: Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (c. 1558)

What is the main focus of the painting?

How is nature presented?

How is the sea presented?

Where is Icarus???

William Carlos Williams, a 20th Century American poet wrote a descriptive poem that captures the message in the painting "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," a work completed around 1558 by the Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder

How is the poem related to the painting?

"Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" by William Carlos Williams

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