Neoclassical School (c. 1800) - "oh, Wretched Phaeton!"

- Oil on canvas. Original canvas.

- O wretched Phaeton, that presumptuous youth whose blind ambition dared to claim the reins of the Sun God himself. Contemplate the tragic beauty of this neoclassical painting, in which the rigor of Enlightenment reason barely manages to stifle the tragic breath of a rediscovered mythology: there stands the young charioteer, standing upon the golden chariot, enveloped in a halo of solar radiance and escorted by the genii of the ether. But this serene, almost statuesque posture is merely the moment before the abyss, the fragile calm that precedes the cataclysm. A victim of audacity born of inexperience and that unconscious recklessness characteristic of imprudent youth, Phaeton believed he had the strength to tame the frenzied race of the divine steeds, unaware that the sun’s fire demands the hand of a god and not the vain whim of a mortal. The insolent beauty is still unaware that the reins he holds so proudly today will slip from his grasp tomorrow, that the heavens will plunge into chaos, and that his tragic fate—plunged into the abyss of the Eridanus by Jupiter’s vengeful lightning — will remain etched forever as the most striking and searing lesson on human hubris.

- Dimensions of the unframed artwork: 72 x 85 cm / 86 x 99 cm with an exclusive, custom-made frame.