Artwork Title: “Icarus - the dream of freedom”, carved © 2021, Artwork dimensions : Height/Width/Depth : 101 x 74 x 37 cm, weight 28 kg. Marble, threaded iron and wood.
© Protected by copyright.
This is a unique work of art..
Icarus, the legend that stands as a testimony to one of man's greatest dreams: that of flying.
From childhood dreams to flights over countries and countries in commercial planes, space exploration, or more recently, space tourism, our appetite for air seems unquenchable.
But let's go back to ancient times, when the urge to fly was as vivid as it is today.
Icarus is the son of Daedalus, portrayed in Greek mythology as an architect and sculptor, who helped build the famous labyrinth of Knossos in which Minos, the ruler of Crete, imprisoned the Minotaur and often brought virgins and lads as sacrifices to appease them. the lust of human flesh.
After a while, Daedalus, the village of the sacrifices made for the Minotaur, plots with Theseus to kill the monster.
As punishment, Minos locks the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus in the labyrinth and builds the exit. But the ingenious Daedalus manages to make two pairs of wax wings and feathers, for him and his son, who should have saved them.
Daedalus teaches his son how to fly: "Icarus, floats in the middle, / I advise you, for too low you will go, it is loaded with water / The feathers, if too high, will burn them like the Sun" (Ovid, Metamorphoses, the eighth book).
Icarus, fascinated by the beauty of flight and heights, gets too close to the Sun, which melts its wings with its heat, and Icarus collapses into the waters of the Aegean Sea and dies.
Icarus is the symbol of the man who tries to surpass himself, but the excess of zeal, haste, inexperience and disobedience to parental counsel kill his dream.
With a little imagination we could bring the legend to our times when the dream of freedom was shattered by the Covid virus 19.
Whichever direction we choose, the story remains enchanting and in its first, non-plasticized sense, in which the one who exalts Icarus is the dream of freedom, kept under the fragile wings of the dreamer and defended at the cost of his life.
