According to studies, hubris, arrogance, and pretension are related to the need for victory. Hubris describes a quality of extreme pride or overconfidence, in combination with arrogance. Literary interpretations of the myth are focused on the tragic theme of failure at the hands of hubris. 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. Icarus’ father warns 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, nor the sun’s heat melts them. Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete using wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax.
In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the Labyrinth creator. In his last years, his popularity faded as the public tastes changed and mythological scenes became less popular, he concentrated more on portraits. The painting was awarded the gold medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris. Herbert James Draper (1863 – 1920) was an English Classicist painter whose career began in the Victorian era.
For this composition, Draper adopted Frederic Leighton’s method of depicting separate figures, for which he employed four young professional models.
The rays of the setting sun on distant cliffs emphasize the transience of time.ĭraper was focused mainly on ancient Greek mythological subjects in the 1890s.
The tanned skin of Icarus symbolizes his close approach to the Sun before falling. This Pre-Raphaelite inspired image of a beautiful winged creature was used to create a symbolic, romantic, and heroic appearance. Icarus’s wings are based on the bird-of-paradise pattern, and surprising, Icarus’s wings appear fully intact, contrary to the myth where the wax melted and Icarus fell flapping his bare arms. “The Lament for Icarus” by Herbert James Draper depicts the dead Icarus, surrounded by lamenting nymphs. “The Lament for Icarus” by Herbert James Draper