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Categories: Painting
Relevant passages:
Christine Buci-Glucksmann «From the carthopraphic View to the Virtual»
Pieter Bruegel
«Landscape with the Fall of Icarus»
The famous mythological topic of the fall of Icarus in the narration of Ovid inspired Brueghel around 1555 to this painting of the same name: Icarus falls and drowns when his wings, made out of wax, came too close to the burning sun and melted. The surroundings, specifically the peasant, the shepherd and the fisherman, is ignorant to his plight.
The painting, which was believed to be lost until 1912, aroused a debate when a second version surfaced in 1935. The discussion as to which of the two is the original or whether both are in fact copies, is still going on.
Rudolf Frieling
