Icarus - Paris, France
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 48° 53.693 E 002° 14.220
31U E 444075 N 5416050
Icarus...tried to escape Crete with wings crafted with feathers and wax...but, he failed because he flew too close to the Sun.
Waymark Code: WMD5WZ
Location: Île-de-France, France
Date Posted: 11/23/2011
Views: 18
This sculpture by Igor Mitoraj interestingly depicts Icarus not only without wings...but without arms. Other than the work being entitled "Icare" there is no way to identify the figure. The work simply depicts a huge nude man, with arms broken off mid-bicep. His eyes are closed as his face is directed downwards. The piece is dated 1999 and is located near Leonardo da Vinci University in Paris.
Wikipedia (
visit link) tells us this about Icarus:
"Ovid's treatment of the Icarus myth and its connection with that of Phaëton influenced the mythological tradition in English literature
as received and interpreted by major writers such as Chaucer,[9] Marlowe,[10] Shakespeare,[11] Milton,[12] and Joyce.[13] In Renaissance iconography, the significance of Icarus depends on context: in the Orion Fountain at Messina, he is one of many figures associated with water; but he is also shown on the Bankruptcy Court of the Amsterdam Town Hall - where he symbolizes high-flying ambition.[14]
The 16th-century painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, traditionally but perhaps erroneously attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, was the inspiration for two of the 20th century's most notable ecphrastic English-language poems, "Musée des Beaux Arts" by W.H. Auden and "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" by William Carlos Williams. Other English-language poems referencing the Icarus myth are "To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph" by Anne Sexton and "Mrs Icarus" by Carol Ann Duffy."