c. 1730
Oil on canvas, 68 x 53 cm
Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna
This sketchy painting is related to Tiepolo's first major fresco commission outside Venice and the Veneto, the ceiling frescoes in the Palazzo Archinto in Milan. It depicts the beginning of the story of the fall of Phaethon: he approaches his father Apollo and asks him for his sun-chariot for a day.
