The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2023

Copy after Giulio Romano's Fall of Icarus

after 1536

after Giulio Romano

(Italian, 1492/99–1546)

Italy, 16th century

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

Support: Light brown laid paper, laid down on beige(1) wove paper

Sheet: 39.8 x 29.3 cm (15 11/16 x 11 9/16 in.); Secondary Support: 41.9 x 31.6 cm (16 1/2 x 12 7/16 in.)

Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Robert A. Frary in memory of I. T. Frary 1992.90

Location

not on view

Description

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.

Provenance
Joseph van Haecken (Lugt 2516, stamped, lower right, in black ink)
Sir Joshua Reynolds (Lugt 2364, stamped, lower right, in black ink)
Citations
Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1992." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (1993): 38-79. p. 73, no. 272 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

Signs of Affection: Gifts Honoring the Museum's 75th Anniversary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27, 1992-January 3, 1993).

Gods and Heroes: Ancient Legends in Renaissance Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 26-December 31, 2017).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.90