Icarus Pinwheel by Michael Ayrton, graphite on paper

Michael Ayrton represents Icarus as he reaches the zenith of flight – too close to the sun. A similar composition to this drawing was later included in his 1962 illustrated novel, ‘The Testament of Daedalus’.

In the novel Ayrton vividly described the pivotal moment when Icarus' ‘trunk splayed outwards, expanding, and the jointed projections of his limbs, disordered in the fission of his body, became the vectors of an energy beyond mortal strength … A compact projectile and yet spread across the sky, he evolved in that instance a sequence of related anatomies, each designed to succeed and doomed to fail’. After this moment, the wax in Icarus’ wings abruptly melted, plunging him into the Aegean Sea, where he drowned. As for other artists and writers of the period, reflecting on Second World War and Post-war aviation, technologies and politics, Icarus became for Ayrton a symbol of man’s ambitions in flight – at once heroic and innovative, over-confident and deadly. Verso: another drawing of Icarus in flight. Purchased in 1973. Copyright: the artist's estate / RAF Museum.