The Judgement of Paris | Narodna galerija

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The scene is taken from Greek mythology. The shepherd Paris, with Hermes at his side, is handing the apple to Aphrodite, as the prize in the beauty competition. Aphrodite is accompanied by little Eros. The other two goddesses in this contest are Hera with a peacock and Athena with her instruments of war at her feet.

The style of the painting is characteristic of Jordaens’ mature period, but without more detailed technical examination, literature searches and comparisons we cannot attribute it to Jordaens himself. We know that Jordaens painted The Judgement of Paris several times; the only version known today is in the Samuel H. Kress Collection in the Lowe Gallery of the University of Miami (Florida, USA), which can be dated between 1620 and 1625. In old auction catalogues there are numerous mentions of Jordaens paintings of this motif, but it is impossible to establish whether one or the other of them could be linked with the picture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection or with the composition of our painting; cf. auction catalogues of Siebrecht (Antwerp 1754), the Spanish consul (London 1772), Nieuwhoff (Amsterdam 1777) and De La Salle (Vienna 1827). Because of the difference in size our painting cannot be identified as that in the collection of Christiane Susanne De Vries (Amsterdam 1840) nor that which was on sale at the Ourshagen auction (Mechelen 1892).

Artist Jacob Jordaens

Technique oil, canvas

Dimensions 113 x 139 cm

Inventory number NG S 2043, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

Collection 1600–1700

Preservation: At some time after the painting had been returned to Brdo Castle from the 1983 exhibition it was perforated and the paint fell off the stomach of the central female figure. Damage repaired in 1997, Kemal Selmanović.
Provenance: Unknown. Government of Slovenia, Brdo Castle; 1986 entrusted to the Narodna galerija.
Exhibitions: 1960, Ljubljana, No. 35; 1983, Ljubljana, No. 90.
Lit.: Cevc 1960, p. 24, Cat. No. 35, Fig. 19 (Giovan Gioseffo dal (!) Sole [?]); Rizzi 1972, p. 134, No. 35 (Flemish, 17C); Zeri [& Rozman] 1983, p. 160, Cat. No. 90, Fig. 89.