g, and dissolved
The waxen compact of their plumes:--and down
He toppled, beating wild with naked arms
The unsustaining air, and with vain cry
Shrieking for succour from his sire!
The sea that bears his name received him as he fell."

Daedalus, having buried his son on the island of Icaria, proceeded on
his way and came at last to Sicily, where he lived to finish some
important works of architecture.

Our illustration shows some phases of Van Dyck's art with which we are
least familiar. He rarely interested himself in mythological stories,
though such subjects were common among his contemporaries. The painter
has caught in this case the essential spirit of the myth. There are
few of his pictures also in which he expressed so well the sense of
motion. The inclination of the body of Icarus, the poise of the
wings, and the gesture of the right hand all contribute admirably to
this end.

Here, too, we see how carefully he studied the nude figure, and how
well he understood the principles of modelling. The foreshortening of
the right arm and hand of Icarus is a clever piece of technical
workmanship. The composition is well planned to fill the canvas.

VII

PORTRAIT OF CHARLES I

(_By Sir Peter Lely, after Van Dyck_)

Charles I of England was the second king of the Stuart dynasty, whose
despotic tendencies made the seventeenth century a memorable period in
history. He ascended the throne at the age of twenty-five, and began
at once to assert his belief in the divine right of kings. Indignant
at the restraints which Parliament set upon his power, he dissolved
this body and ruled alone.

For more than ten years he governed England in his own way, and during
this time his court was conducted with great magnificence. The palace
at Whitehall was the scene of many brilliant entertainments and lavish
hospitalities.

Charles was an ardent lover of music, literature, and painting, and in
his gallery was a collection of pictures remarkable for his time. He
was particularly proud of the ceiling decorations of his Banqueting
Hall, furnished by Rubens. He interested himself also in the
manufacture of tapestries, and secured for England Raphael's cartoons
for the Vatican tapestries, hoping thereby to raise the artistic
standard of the home production.[7]

[Footnote 7: See Chapter III. of volume on _Raphael_ in the Riverside
Art Series.]

It was a crowning proof of his good taste that early in hi