The Fall of Phaeton, from the series Ovid's Metamorphoses

Jupiter hurls a thunderbolt from the upper right, casting Phaeton from the Sun's chariot into a state of chaotic descent. On the left, the titan Atlas struggles to hold up a celestial sphere darkened by intense heat, while river deities and nymphs in the foreground mourn the parched earth and rising flames.

In Renaissance natural philosophy, Phaeton’s fall represents a cosmic crisis where the disruption of the sun's path threatens the elemental balance of the universe. It served as a moral and philosophical allegory for hubris and the cataclysmic potential of fire when decoupled from divine order.