The Fall of Icarus
Medium
Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, and gouache
Dimensions
sheet: 3 3/4 x 5 7/16 in. (9.5 x 13.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Jean A. Bonna Gift, 2007
Accession Number
2007.223.49
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the intricate drawing *The Fall of Icarus (1692), Johann Caspar Hessius captures pivotal moment from Greek mythology, where Icarus plummets toward the sea after flying too close to the sun his wax wings melting under its intense rays. Created on a modest sheet measuring just 3 3/4 x 5 7/16 inches, this work belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints, acquired in 2007 through the Jean A. B Gift. The composition highlights dramatic elements like the blazing sun and rugged hills, evoking the timeless theme of human ambition and its perils, as told in Ovid's *Metamorphoses*...