“The Lament for Icarus”
Here is another gorgeous painting I stumbled upon quite by accident. Being part Ikarian, I am very fond of it and happy to share it today!
“The Lament for Icarus” is an oil on canvas painting from 1898 by the English neoclassical artist, Herbert James Draper. This is Draper’s most famous painting and is a stunning representation of an Ancient Greek mythology.
Icarus was a character from Ancient Greece. His story is a parable made famous in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Daedalus was an architect and inventor who created the Labyrinth (the famous haunt of the Minotaur). As Greek tragedies go, King Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son, Icarus, in the walls of his own making, the Labyrinth. In his effort to escape, Daedalus created a new invention to allow him and his son to fly over the walls of the Labyrinth and flee the island of King Minos. With this lamentable invention, Daedalus used beeswax and feathers to bind the wings together.
Icarus attempted the flight first. During his flight, the youth got caught up in the joy of flying like the gods. Icarus ignored his father’s warnings and flew too close to the sun, melting the wax that held his feathered wings together. He fell down to the earth and landed in the Aegean Sea where he perished. Icarus was buried on the nearby island of Ikaria, which is named after him.
In this piece, Draper depicts the moment just after Icarus has fallen from the sky. He is laid out on a rock in the sea. The steep cliffs of an island can be seen in the background. Icarus is surrounded by nymphs, minor deities of the Greek mythology, who are mourning his tragedy. One of the nymphs is holding him in her arms. Icarus’s skin is darkened from his closeness to the sun. His gorgeous feathers lay down at his sides. The figures are cast in shadow, with the light of the setting sun visible in the background. Icarus has just failed his attempt to fly and paid the ultimate price.
Draper used four different models for this piece, Luigi di Luca, Ethel Gurden, Ethel Warwick, and Florence Bird. Ethel Warwick would go on to become a film actress.
This painting was displayed at the Royal Academy in 1898, where it was immediately purchased for a collection of modern art that would become the Tate Britain. In 1900, Draper’s masterpiece, “The Lament for Icarus”, won the gold prize at the Paris Exposition Universelle. This was a huge honor, and Draper became internationally recognized for his work.
“The Lament for Icarus” is part of the permanent collections of the Tate Britain, in London, England.
For more on Herbert James Draper, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
