National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Fall of Phaeton
  • Overview
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

Phaeton, Apollo’s son, begged his father to allow him to drive the chariot of the sun across the sky. In the hands of the rash youth, who had neither the strength nor the experience to control the chariot, the horses bolted, scorching everything in their path with the sun's heat. The butterfly–winged female figures, personifying the seasons and hours, react in terror as the earth below bursts into flame. Even the great astrological bands that arch through the heavens are disrupted. To save the universe from destruction, Zeus, king of the gods, throws a thunderbolt, represented here by a blinding shaft of light. As the chariot disintegrates, Phaeton plunges to his death.

Rubens painted The Fall of Phaeton in Rome. His study of works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo influenced his evocation of complex poses and a powerful sense movement. The lighting reveals the artist’s attention to Venetian artists as well. Rubens continued to work on the painting over a number of years. He likely found the subject—which warned of the need for personal restraint and responsibility—congenial to his own philosophical beliefs.

Inscription

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Provenance

Probably in the collection of Susanna Willemsens [d. 1657], Antwerp.[1] (possibly General Gansell sale, Christie's, London, 25 February 1775, no. 81 [bought in for £67]).[2] James Du Pre Alexander, 3th earl of Caledon [1812-1855], London, before 1857;[3] by inheritance to his son, James Alexander, 4th earl of Caledon [1846-1898], London; by inheritance to his son, Eric James Desmond Alexander, 5th earl of Caledon [1885-1968], London; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9 June 1939, no. 24, as by A.J. van Diepenbeck); Mrs. Sanderson, London; S. [Mrs. Gustave] Delbanco, London, by 1954;[4] Gustave Delbanco, London; purchased 5 January 1990 through (Ellin Mitchell, New York) by NGA.

[1] Listed as "Eenen Phaeton van Rubens, op doeck" in the inventory of Willemsens collection made in Antwerp on July 6, 1657. See Jean Denucé, The Antwerp art-galleries; inventories of the art collections in Antwerp in the 16th and 17th centuries, Antwerp, 1932: 197.

[2] Algernon Graves, Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century (Mostly Old Master and Early English Pictures), 3 vols., London, 1918-1921: 3(1921):109; Michael Jaffé, "Rubens in Italy: Rediscovered Works," The Burlington Magazome 100 (December 1958): 416.

[3] Gustav-Friedrich Waagen (Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of more than Forty Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Mss., &c.&c., [Forming a supplemental volume to the Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols.], London, 1857: 152), considered the painting to be a copy after Rubens.

[4] According to Jaffé 1958, 415 note 11.

Exhibition History

1977
Peter Paul Rubens, 1577-1640, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 1977, no. 7.
2000
Greek Gods and Heroes in the Age of Rubens and Rembrandt, National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Athens; Dordrechts Museum, 2000-2001, no. 64, repro.
2004
Rubens, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, 2004, no. 13, repro.

Bibliography

1857
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of more than Forty Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Mss., &c.&c.. London, 1857: 152.
1932
Denucé, Jean. The Antwerp Art-Galleries: Inventories of the Art-Collections in Antwerp in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Antwerp, 1932: 197.
1958
Jaffé, Michael. "Rubens in Italy: Rediscovered Works." The Burlington Magazine 100 (December 1958): 415-416, 418, repro.
1959
Held, Julius. Rubens. Selected Drawings. 2 vols. New York, 1959: 1:202, no. 21.
1971
Alpers, Svetlana. The Decorations of the Torre de la Parada. (Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part 9). London and New York, 1971: 254.
1971
Jacoby, Brigitte. "Studien zur Ikonographie des Phaetonmythos." Ph.D. diss., Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn, 1971: 165-171, 227, no. 171.
1977
Jaffé, Michael. Rubens and Italy. Oxford, 1977: 30, 36, 71, 80, repros.
1977
Müller Hofstede, Justus. Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640. Exh. cat. Wallraf-Richartz-Museums. 2 vols. Cologne, 1977: 145-146, 335, no. 7, color repro.
1980
Held, Julius S. The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens. A Critical Catalogue. 2 vols. Princeton, 1980: 1:292, no. 210.
1983
Huemer, Frances. "Rubens and Galileo 1604: Nature, Art, and Poetry." Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 44 (1983): 186, 188, 192.
1989
Jaffé, Michael. Rubens: Catalogo Completo. Milan, 1989: 75, 156, 157, no. 50, repro.
1992
Bauman, Guy C., and Walter A. Liedtke. Flemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America. Antwerp, 1992: 175-177, color repro.
1993
Jaffé, Michael. "Samson Destroying the Temple of Dragon: A Rediscovered Rubens." Apollo 139 (December 1993): 382.
1996
Huemer, Frances. Rubens and the Roman Circle: Studies of the First Decade. New York and London, 1996: 63, 68-71, 133, 241, 246 note 4, color repro.
1999
Oppenheimer, Paul. Rubens: A Portrait, Beauty and the Angelic. London, 1999: 201.
2004
Peter Paul Rubens--Barocke Leidenschaften. Exh. cat. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, 2004: 205, repro.
2005
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 146-153, color repro.
2007
Healy, Fiona. "Loosing Control of the Senses: The Fifth Horse in Rubens's Fall of Phaeton." In Caroline Zöhl and Mara Hofmann, eds. Von Kunst und Temperament. Festschrift für Eberhard König. Turnhout, 2007: 105-118, fig. 1.
2013
The Editors. "Listings: Agenda." Apollo 117, no. 609 (May 2013): 20, color repro.

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