The Fall of Phaeton (c. 1545): Art, History and Details

The Fall of Phaeton (c. 1545) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Nicolas Beatrizet (French, active Italy, 1507 or 1515-about 1565); Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475–1564).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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 a thunderbolt. Below, Phaeton’s mourning sisters transform into trees.

Object facts

• Title: The Fall of Phaeton
• Date: c. 1545
• Creator attribution: Nicolas Beatrizet (French, active Italy, 1507 or 1515-about 1565); Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475–1564)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Dimensions: Sheet: 41.9 x 29 cm (16 1/2 x 11 7/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1965.458

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Zinser

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.