The Fall of Phaeton
Medium
engraving
Dimensions
41.9 × 29 cm
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Zinser
Accession Number
1965.458
Tags
male
About this artwork
Michelangelo gave a finished drawing of the Fall of Phaeton to his close friend Tommaso de’ Cavalieri in 1533. Almost immediately, copies of the drawing were made in the form of plaques and prints without direct involvement from Michelangelo himself. This engraving by a French artist working in Rome closely follows Michelangelo’s composition for the scene but adds landscape elements in the background. In this myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Phaeton, son of the sun-god Helios, drives his father’s...