This strict placing forms an exception, as Rubens' mythological works do not appear to have been arranged according to any pre-established concept. Archive documents tell us that these two paintings with a similar theme were placed facing each other in the first room on the ground floor of the Spanish royal hunting pavilion. This sketch represents the destiny of man, as does the Fall of Phaethon, also conserved in the museum. This play of light and shadow allows the artist both to place Icarus in the forefront of the picture and to insist on the vulnerability of his flesh. Icarus is exposed in full light, whilst Daedalus' body is handled in darker tones. At the same time he concentrates on the movement of the two bodies, contrasting with the calmness of the sea and the mute intensity of the sun. The painter confers a highly human dimension to his work by representing the painful loss of a son. In it he chooses to illustrate the most dramatic moment of Ovid's narrative, when Daedalus looks towards Icarus falling headlong into the void. The Fall of Icarus is another of the sketches that Peter Paul Rubens produced from 1636 onwards for the decoration of the Torre de la Parada. Daedalus watches his son's fall despairingly, unable to save him.
Forgetting his father's advice, Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting the wax of his wings and falling into the sea. Wishing to leave the island with his son Icarus, he made two pairs of wings similar to those of birds, using feathers attached with wax.
He too was then imprisoned in it by the monarch's order. Architect and sculptor Daedalus had built the Cretan labyrinth for King Minos in order to imprison the minotaur.