"The title goes back to an enigmatic passage from the Old Testament (Genesis 6.2.): "There the sons of gods saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took themselves to women whom they only liked." It goes on to say (Genesis 6.4.): “In those times there were fiends on earth, even afterwards, when the sons of God associated with the daughters of men and gave birth to them; these are the strong men of prehistoric times." ​ The four failed heavenly climbers Tantalus, Icarus, Phaeton and Ixion, who were engraved in copper by Hendrick Goltzius in 1588 based on paintings by his artist friend Cornelis van Haarlem (which are believed to have been lost) could also serve as models for those falling. The bold foreshortening of the naked, athletic male body from a simultaneous bird's-eye view and from below, turning downward around its own axis, combines arrogance, the overestimation of one's own strength, lust for fame, and ambition. So they came into conflict with their own nature and the cosmos and failed. ​ David Stern's figures in these three paintings are a strong expression of the current state in which we live and reflect the widespread feeling of bottomlessness, of falling into nothing. Everything that still held society together is dissolving before our eyes and is getting out of hand. There is no longer any consensus. David Stern comments: “We can thank the postmodern philosophers who said there is no history, no values, no more author, everyone determines their own reality. We are constantly overshooting the target. In doing so, we are risking all the progress that we have made over the past few centuries." ​ Dr. Eckhart Gillen, "David Stern: Alchemist der Farben" (2021)