La Chute d'Icare (The Fall of Icarus)

Jacques Houplain

Jacques Houplain turns to the Greek legend of Icarus for his subject in this etching. Icarus and his father Daedalus attempted to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus' father warned him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea's dampness would not clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father's instructions not to fly too close to the sun; when the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell into the sea where he drowned.

Daedalus' wings are delicate, created by hundreds of short lines that resemble a web or delicate leaf. Icarus' wings are singed, heavy and misshapen causing him to plunge head first toward earth.