The Fall of Phaeton — Carel van Eyck
Greek Mythology has always been a source of infinite inspiration for the arts; myths reached people through the representation of the most powerful passages.
The Prado Museum has one of the world’s most exciting collections of mythological paintings.
For beyond Homer, there is the whole vastness of the Greek deities.
Works from all periods and by a significant number of authors shine in its rooms and when shown in many other museums in the increasingly common temporary exhibitions.
Among many works, we can find the one entitled The Fall of Phaethon, a painting by Jan Carel Van Eyck, a Dutch artist and student of Rubens.
The work, as its name suggests, deals with the myth of Phaethon. Yet another drama that illustrates the fateful character of much of Greek mythology (and that did not fail to show the impulses of an archaic Greek society in which life was very complicated and challenging).
Phaethon was the son of Apollo (although it is also said that of Helios, an archaic god who eventually lost importance and was absorbed by Apollo) and Clímene, a divine inheritance of which he did not stop boasting at all times.
