“Icarus”

46″ x 46″, Oil & acrylic on beveled tondo (round) canvas 

“Icarus” was completed in 2022 by artist Nancy Hilliard Joyce. In Greek mythology, Icarus was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Icarus and Daedalus attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that Daedalus constructed from feathers and wax. Daedalus warns Icarus first of complacency and then of hubris, instructing him to fly neither too low nor too high, lest the sea’s dampness clog his wings or the sun’s heat melt them. Icarus ignores his father’s instruction not to fly too close to the sun, causing the wax in his wings to melt. The myth gave rise to the idiom “don’t fly too close to the sun”.