Daedalus and Icarus

In 1776 a painting of this subject came up for sale in London described as a self-portrait, and two years later an engraving after the composition was published lettered "Vandyke in the character of Icarus". The identification has held since, helped by the resemblance between this boy's head and the self-portrait van Dyck made of himself as a teenager, now in the Rubens house in Antwerp. The Art Gallery of Ontario places the canvas between 1615 and 1625. Daedalus is the one doing the talking, fitting the wings and delivering the warning about altitude that his son will ignore. A second version of the composition, a little broader, is in Boston. This one reached Toronto in 1940, a gift from Frank P. Wood and his wife.