ParisJudgment1.0066_Ewoutsz

ParisJudgment1.0066_Ewoutsz

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Ovid Met.6.146-312

J. Ewoutsz (Hans Eworth), "Queen Elizabeth Confounding Juno, Minerva, and Venus," 1569, British Royal Collection, RCIN 403446; Catalog 1969 no. 58 plate 32.

Elizabeth steps into the midst of three goddesses who typically await the Judgment of Paris (e.g. as in Rubens). To their astonishment, Elizabeth Regina already holds the orb — she has won the contest they are gearing up for. Ewoutsz uses the conventional iconography of the scene to turn a witty new interpretation: Elizabeth has everything the most powerful divinities have. Windsor, which is clearly depicted on the hill behind the scene, is the sort of pleasance where goddesses could naturally be come.

In 1569, the "virgin Queen" was in her mid-30's and had been the English sovereign already for a decade. Ewoutsz, a Flemish painter who survives in about 40 paintings, executed portraits of both Elizabeth and Mary in his later career.

The frame's caption states in Latin elegiac couplets what is shown in the picture above it:

"Juno shines powerful in her scepters, and Pallas with sharpness of intellect, also splendor shines on Venus's lovely visage; but, Elizabeth came along. Juno ran away crushed. Pallas stood dumbstruck, and Venus blushed."

Juno potens sceptris et mentis acumine Pallas; / Et roseo Veneris fulget in ore decus. // Adfuit Elizabeth, Juno perculsa refugit; / obstipuit Pallas, erubuitque Venus.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 – 1990’s, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.