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Unsignificantly
off the coast
there was
a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning
~ William Carlos Williams
Despite the
warnings of his father, Daedalus, Icarus wearing wings of wax and
feather soared up towards the sun. In
the Greek myth, solar rays melted the wax and loosened the feathers
plunging the impetuous youth to a watery grave.
A metaphor for failed ambition, often depicted in art and
literature.
German artist Sascha Schneider (1870-1927)
eroticized Icarus. Initially Schneider’s
art benefited from Germany’s “Free Body Culture” or “Freikörperkultur.” While embracing the male nude body in public,
the movement did not tolerate private homosexuality.
The gay artist fled to Italy in the early 1900s when threatened by a
blackmailer. Contemporary Portuguese sculptor Rogério
Timóteo explores
the beauty and boldness of the human body in marble and metal. Timóteo’s massive sculpture Icarus appears to float in the air, a
moment of balance before falling from grace.
Similar
to the tragic tale of Icarus is the fable of Phaethon. In Greek mythology,
the son of solar deity Helios, and a
mortal woman, journeyed to his
father’s royal palace in the East. Helios
granted his son one favor. Phaethon
insisted on driving the Sun Chariot across the heavens to the
West. Against Helios’ wishes, his son took the
reins of the carriage. When steered by his father, the chariot and four
winged horses brought the Sun's warmth and light to
mortals. Instead Phaethon lost control
of the quadriga and set the earth aflame.
Struck down by a thunderbolt from Zeus,
Phaethon fell to a fiery death in the river
Eridnos.
French
decorative artist Adolphe David (1828–1896), captured
Phaethon’s descent in an exquisite carved onyx cameo of ochre and white set against
polished black jet.
