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Sir Peter Paul Rubens Flemish, 1577 - 1640 The Fall of Phaeton, c. 1604/1605, probably reworked c. 1606/1608 oil on canvas, 98.4 x 131.2 cm (38 3/4 x 51 5/8 in.) Patrons' Permanent Fund 1990.1.1 |
Object 1 of 8
Helios, the Greek god who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky by day, had a son, Phaeton, by a human mother. With the rashness of youth, Phaeton tricked his father into letting him drive the chariot. Ignoring Helios' stern warnings about his mortal frailty, Phaeton took the reins. The horses instantly bolted out of control, scorching everything in their path with the sun's heat.
The butterfly-winged female figures are personifications of time and the sun's cycles. These Seasons and Hours react in terror as the earth below bursts into flame. Even the great astrological bands that arch through the heavens at the upper left are disrupted by the chaos.
To save the universe from utter destruction, Zeus, the Greek king of the gods, threw a thunderbolt, represented here by a blinding shaft of light. As the chariot disintegrates and the steeds break free, Phaeton plunges to his death.
Rubens painted this dramatic early work during his eight years of travel in Italy. The powerful movement and complex postures of these tumbling figures and flailing horses derive from Florentine and Roman battle scenes by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Venetian paintings, especially those by Tintoretto, are the source for Rubens' forceful lighting in this baroque composition.
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