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Plaster bas relief sculpture 'Dedalus and Icarus' by F N Bose ARSA

Photographer: unknown

Plaster bas relief sculpture 'Dedalus and Icarus' by F N Bose ARSA

Bose himself may have been responsible for the photography however he is known to have had his own portrait taken by the Edinburgh-based commercial…

Bose himself may have been responsible for the photography however he is known to have had his own portrait taken by the Edinburgh-based commercial photographer Drummond Young whilst another Edinburgh photographer Francis Caird Inglis recorded other of Bose's sculptural works and he may have engaged either of them to record this piece.

The piece depicts an interpretation of the well-known tale of how the youth Icarus and his father the craftsman Daedalus attempted to escape from the island of Crete where they had both been imprisoned.

Daedalus crafted them both a pair of wings which were attached by wax. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too low nor too high but Icarus in his excitement flew too close to the sun, the heat of which melted the binding wax and he fell to his death by drowning.

The work was made whilst Bose was in his first year as a student at Edinburgh College of Art. Titled "Daedalus and Icarus" it was his original design for a work of the same title which became the first work by Bose to be selected to hang in the RSA, appearing in the RSA Annual Exhibition of 1909 (cat.333) as a bronze.

The work which varied from that in the present photograph was reviewed in 'The Scotsman' newspaper of 1909-02-25; " 'Daedalus and Icarus' is a group in bronze by Fanindra Nath Bose, hailing from the College of Art. With outspread wings, father and son are apparently about to set out on their, famous flight from the Cretan labyrinth to escape the resentment of Minos. The two figures, though posed at different heights, have a certain sameness of form which affects the general character of the design; at the same time the figures are vigorously conceived, and the work is full of promise."