Fall of Phaeton, Rise of Ricci

     I decided to research and analyze Sebastiano Ricci’s painting Fall of Phaeton. Sebastiano Ricci practiced his craft in the late 17th early 18th century in Venice. His work had a sense of Rococo or late Baroque style with its asymmetrical compositions, curved lines and intense perspectives.What initially attracted my attention to Ricci was the detail and intense motion of his work. The movement he was able to capture in his paintings brought out the drama of the stories and really hinted at the early Baroque style that was still lingering in Ricci’s technique. The painting Fall of Phaeton is a prime example where the motion and perspective of the composition is exaggerated to an extreme and really brings out the tension in the work. This is more then a simply aesthetically beautiful painting. It is a wonderful representation of one of my favorite stories of Greek mythology.

     The painting depicts Phaeton the son of the sun-god Helios. Helios was responsible for driving his four horse, golden chariot (the sun) across the sky daily. Phaeton convinced his skeptic father to let him drive the sun across the sky for one day, but without the skill needed Phaeton was soon in trouble. Sebastiano’s painting conveys the climatic moment of this trouble when Phaeton loses the reins of his horses and control of the chariot, putting the earth in danger of catching fire. A thunderbolt is sent by Zeus to kill Phaeton and prevent earth from being destroyed. The highlights and shadows of this piece is what really attracted me at first glance. It is almost as if the viewer is the light source, everything is illuminated directly in front and the shadows intensify as the forms recede into the background giving the audience center stage in the divine story.

      Being half Greek myself I have always had an interest in Greek mythology and this has become a favorite story of mine, not because of the story so much but the painting that I now found to accompany it.

This painting is what I see as a perfect depiction of the original Myth and the perspective of the chariot falling and Phaeton tumbling out is amazing to me. While this Myth has been translated into paintings before Ricci’s time and after, none of them show the bright realism that I see in Ricci’s work.

      It was painted between 1703-04 with oil on canvas. It is one of the only depictions I saw that was close up and clear to the drama of the story. I find it amazing and daring the angles that Phaeton used, if Zeus was taken out of this painting it would be difficult to understand witch way is up and down. The horses are painted at such extreme positions it is amazing they still read as real. The realism of not only the horses but the body of Phaeton and the perspective in witch they fall is amazing to me. The soft mix of warm colors in the middle of the painting surrounded by very faint cool colors of the sky keep the viewers attention in on the characters and reveal the tension that had just taken place or is taking place at that very moment. It was very difficult to find scholarly descriptions and interpretations of this painting but I feel as if it quite literal to the story. This is one of the reasons I chose this painting, It is not so much a mystery with hidden meanings but a very good depiction of a very important Greek myth that teaches us not to overreach our own skill level. And if we do, hopefully we are able to stop our over confident selves before we set fire to our world.