The Judgement of Paris
manner of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 - Antwerp 1640)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1600 - 1699
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
819 x 1156 mm (32¼ x 45½ in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Lacock, Wiltshire
NT 996273
Caption
This picture is close to but not quite the same of any of Rubens’s known versions of the subject. Here Paris, shown as a shepherd, is shown judging the beauty contest between three naked goddeses: Venus, Juno and Minerva. Mercury stands by Paris’s side. The winner, Venus, was awarded a golden apple, but the picture shows no indication of the dire consequence that would follow: the Trojan war. The picture is set into a plaster frame in the dining room at Lacock, which was redesigned in 1750. The picture must therefore have been painted before that date. It is fairly crudely painted, probably by an English artist.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Judgement of Paris, manner of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), 17th century. This is not after the National Gallery picture, but –according to David Jaffé – is after a version in Japan [?] (not reproduced in Michael Jaffés Opera Completa). Various engraved versions are listed in C.G. Voorhelm Schneevoogt, Catalogue des Estampes Gravées d’après P.P. Rubens, Harlem, 1873 nos. 60 – 65, p.126.
Provenance
Given by Matilda Theresa Talbot (formerly Gilchrist-Clark) (1871 – 1958), who gave the Abbey, the village of Lacock and the rest of the estate to the National Trust in 1944, along with 96 of the family portraits and other pictures, in 1948
Credit line
Lacock Abbey, The Talbot Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
manner of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 - Antwerp 1640), artist after Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 - Antwerp 1640), artist