The Fall of Phaeton is a c.1533 charcoal on paper drawing ofApollo's sonPhaeton fromOvid'sMetamorphoses byMichelangelo, now in theBritish Museum in London.[1]
It was made forTommaso dei Cavalieri, who the artist had met in 1532, with a dedication at the bottom calling it an unfinished presentation drawing and stating that (if dei Cavalieri did not like it) Michelangelo would finish it for him or make another the following evening. At the top isJupiter hurling a thunderbolt.[2] At the base is a thicket with twoHeliades (who, looking at the sky, despair at their brother's fate and are transformed intopoplars),Cycnus hiding his face in his hands, and the reclining river godEridanos.[3]
A second sheet on the same subject by the artist (now in theRoyal Collection atWindsor Castle) was also produced for dei Cavalieri, for whom he drew aRape of Ganymede and other subjects. On this sheet Cycnos' transformation into a swan is more explicit than that of the Heliades.[4]
