The Fall of Phaeton
1545
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
Nicolas Beatrizet
Nicolas Béatrizet was a 16th century French engraver, working in Rome.
See the richer artist page1545
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
The Fall of Phaeton is a 1545 by Nicolas Beatrizet, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a wild tumble of horses and a chariot crashing from the sky, bodies twisting in mid-air. This print copies a lost drawing by Michelangelo. He gave the original to a friend in 1533, and within weeks, engravers in Rome were selling copies—without Michelangelo’s permission. The French artist added trees and clouds to fill the empty corners. If you like the drama of twisting bodies, look up *sfumato*.
Michelangelo gave a finished drawing of the Fall of Phaeton to his close friend Tommaso de’ Cavalieri in 1533. Almost immediately, copies of the drawing were made in the form of plaques and prints without direct involvement from Michelangelo himself. This engraving by a French artist working in Rome closely follows Michelangelo’s composition for the scene but adds landscape elements in the background. In this myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses , Phaeton, son of the sun-god Helios, drives his father’s chariot across the sky but loses control, endangering the earth. Zeus intercedes to kill him with…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Nicolas Béatrizet was a 16th century French engraver, working in Rome.
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