Jacob Peter Gowy (Belgian, ca. 1615-1661)
The Fall of Icarus
Ca. 1635-1637
Oil on canvas (195 x 180 cm)
Museo del Prado

Jacob Peter Gouwy or Jacob Peter Gowy was a Flemish Baroque painter of history paintings and portraits. He collaborated with Peter Paul Rubens in the mid-1630s. In 1636 Rubens received a commission from the Spanish king Philip IV of Spain to create a series of mythological paintings to decorate the Torre de la Parada, a hunting lodge of the king near Madrid. The mythological scenes depicted in the series were largely based on the Metamorphoses of Ovid. Rubens realized this important commission with the assistance of a large number of Antwerp painters who worked after Rubens' designs. Gouwy was also involved in this project as a collaborator. Two of the canvases which Gouwy created after designs by Rubens, one representing The Fall of Icarus and the other Hippomenes and Atalanta, are in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid. A comparison with Rubens' original designs shows that the artist only made minor modifications to these designs.

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