Object Description
375 THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS
To the right, Paris in armor, his helmet beside him, sitting under a tree to which his horse is tied; a bird on a branch. Before him. Mercury, also in armor, indicating the three goddesses, Juno, Minerva, and Venus, nude, with his caduceus; two are seen from the front, one from the back. Before Venus lies an apple. Left, above, Eros in the clouds shoots an arrow at Paris.
Bronze, green patina, dia. 73 mm. Cast from a reworked model; some details from the original are illegible.
This depiction goes back to a woodcut attributed to Jorg Breu the Younger and dated to 1535 (H. Rottinger, "Das Holzschnittwerk Jorg Breu's d.J.," Mitteilungen des Vereins fuer vervielfaltigende Kunst [1909], no. 56; M. Geisberg, Bilderkatalog zu: "Der deutsche Einblattholzschnitt in der ersten Halfte des XVI. Jahrhunderts," Munich 1930, no. 400). On its part, Breu's conception is influenced by the numerous representations of this scene by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Possibly stimulated by Breu's composition is a drawing by Erhardt Schon, dated 1536, which closely resembles the plaquette depiction (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Kat. E. Bock, Die Zeichnungen alter Meister i, 1921, p. 77, no. 919, pl. 109), as well as one seen on a medallion in a study for a tankard by Hans Brosamer (A. Frisch, Hans Brosamers Kunstbuechlein, Berlin 1878, Bl. 13v). A larger boxwood medallion (dia. 82 mm., Berlin, Staatliche Museen) and an ivory replica (77 x 75 mm., Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) were dated around 1550, both by Bange (Berlin, Deutsches Museum 4, Kat. Bange, 1930, p. 74f., no. 829) and R. Berliner (Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum 13, 4, Kat. Berliner, 1926, no. 86, pl. 34). The composition exists in some variants, both as a plaquette and as a boxwood relief (Weber, nos. 201-03).
Other specimens: (bronze) Florence, Museo Nazionale (gilt) ; Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (gilt, chased); Opava (Czechoslovakia), Museum.
Bibl.: Weber, no. 201.
