ParisJudgment1.0094

ParisJudgment1.0094_Rubens

The Judgment of Paris by Rubens, depicting three goddesses before Paris and Mercury in a landscape.

Paris offers the Apple of Discord to Aphrodite, even as Athena and Hera offer their most persuasive arguments for his reward in the divine beauty contest. Athena has removed her weapons of defense; Hera's peacock is menacing the sleeping dog; Eros handles Aphrodite's discarded clothing; and Hermes looks on in rapt attention (note petasus and caduceus). Note the brewing storm cloud: the Trojan War is in the offing. This cuts to Rubens' narrative gain: remind the client that preludes to war are to be taken seriously, not as if they mythical beauty pagents from lore.

Rubens' second wife is portrayed as Venus here: "Helena Fourment, who is thirty-seven years his junior, Flanders-flax blond, pneumatic, and comprehensively dimpled." Schama

Rubens' moving painting on the ravages of war, also part of his diplomatic endeavors, is "Peace and War," 1629-1630, is also in National Gallery.