Yours
From high above the earth, we look onto a dramatically lit scene with a man falling from a horse-drawn chariot in midair, surrounded by eleven women against a bank of clouds in this horizontal painting. All of the people have pale skin and are illuminated by a bright burst of sunlight streaming across the scene from the upper right corner. The man is covered only by a burgundy-red sash that wraps across his groin and around one shoulder. He careens headfirst from the U-shaped, golden chariot with his chest facing us, arms flung overhead and legs splayed, to our right of center. The tumble of…
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The Fall of Phaeton

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640)

c. 1604/1605, probably reworked c. 1606/1608

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 98.4 x 131.2 cm (38 3/4 x 51 5/8 in.) ; framed: 125.4 x 159.4 x 5.7 cm (49 3/8 x 62 3/4 x 2 1/4 in.)
Culture
Flemish
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CNE-B
Credit line
Patrons' Permanent Fund
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art

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