Icarus

LANDSCAPE WITH THE FALL OF ICARUS

by William Carlos Williams, According to Brueghel

when Icarus fell
it was spring
a farmer was ploughing
his field

the whole pageantry
of the year was
awake tingling
near

the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself

sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax
unsignificantly

off the coast
there was
a splash quite unnoticed
it was
Icarus drowning.

Icarus is found on some stamps, I show a few here (click on the picture and you may see it in a bigger format). The stamp above representing the painting of Breugel somewhat misses the point: you see the farmer, but Icarus drowning is in the left corner of the painting, it fell off the stamp.

These above are 1924 Hungarian air mail stamps.

 

The Chagal representation is fundamentally different then the Breugel: here people look what happens and they witness the drama of the free fall, whereas Breugel shows that the world goes on, nobody is watching or perhaps even caring for the fallen man.