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A Landscape with the Judgement of Paris

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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This appears to depict a moment of bliss: an idyllic landscape, painted in an Italianate style by Jan Both, is suffused with the warm glow of a summer’s evening. In the foreground a group of elegantly poised nudes, added by Both’s collaborator Cornelis van Poelenburgh, catches the sunlight.

But this is no idyll, and we are witnessing a tragic turning point in mythological history: the Judgement of Paris. Jupiter has asked Paris to judge which of three goddesses – Juno, Minerva and Venus – is the most beautiful. Paris chooses Venus by handing her a golden apple. As a reward she promises him Helen, the beautiful wife of a Greek king. Helen’s abduction leads to the Trojan wars and the destruction of Troy.

Van Poelenburgh and Both had studied in Italy before they returned to Utrecht and were part of a group of Dutch artists who created a taste among their patrons for Italianate landscape painting.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

A Landscape with the Judgement of Paris

Date

about 1645-50

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 97 x W 129 cm

Accession number

NG209

Acquisition method

Bequeathed by Richard Simmons, 1847

Work type

Painting

Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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