1777
oil on canvas
196.4 x 145

Based on a subject from ancient Greek mythology. After committing a crime, the legendary Athens builder and artist Daedalus was forced to flee together with his son Icarus to King Minos on the island of Crete. At the behest of Minos he built the famous labyrinth for the monstrous Minotaur. The son of Athens King Theseus killed the Minitaur. Cunning Daedalus gave Minos’s daughter Ariadne a ball of thread which helped Theseus to find his way out of the labyrinth. Theseus was enraged and confined Daedalus and his son in a tower overlooking a cliff. Daedalus made wings for himself and Icarus from birds’ feathers affixed to wax, and thanks to this they escaped from the prison. But Icarus flew too close to the sun. The rays melted the wax, the wings fell apart and the youth perished, falling into the sea from a great height. The artist has used the subject from Antiquity to demonstrate the beauty and harmony of the nude human body, the juxtaposition of proportions of the figures of an adult man and a youth. The painting was considered exemplary by the Academy of Arts and was used for making copies.

at 10, Lavrushinsky Lane, Hall 2