About this work
The scene is one of mythology's most consequential moments: Paris, the Trojan prince, sits in the woods with Mercury, deciding which of three goddesses — Venus, Minerva, and Juno — is the fairest.
Rubens arranges the three goddesses — Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera — on one side of the composition, with Paris accompanied by Hermes on the other, a classical frieze-like grouping animated by the full energy of Baroque gesture and flesh. The three nude figures each show a different aspect of the female form, painted with a sensitive, almost tender understanding of the body in various states of subtly conveyed emotion.
The textures of silk, velvet, feathers, and hair brushing against pale flesh glowing in the light are Rubens at his sensual best.
Only a few grey clouds and the reflection of the gorgon Medusa in Minerva's mirror disturb the scene, suggesting that peace won't last, while above the figures looms the Fury, Alecto — a harbinger of the war that Paris's choice will ignite.
The painting was a personal commission by King Philip IV of Spain from Rubens in 1637–1638, a time when he was already working on other projects for the same patron.
The king's brother, Cardinal-Infante Don Fernando de Austria, who was governor of the Southern Netherlands, handled the commission and wrote about it in several letters — he considered it one of Rubens's best works, though he was concerned about the nudity of the three women.
The artwork is one of Rubens's most famous and beloved paintings, created in the final decade of his life, which was also the pinnacle of his career. Crucially, Rubens had married Hélène Fourment — then just sixteen — in 1630, and she figures in numerous portraits, including a version of *The Judgement of Paris* in which she appears as Venus.
The bodies are painted using sinuous lines and exaggerated gestures, with paint applied in brushstrokes that call attention to themselves — a way of working characteristic of Rubens's later output and a direct result of his deep admiration for Venetian painting.
As wall art, this is a painting that commands a room rather than decorates one. Its warm, luminous palette — golden skin, deep forest greens, bruised sky — works best against neutral or rich dark walls, where the figures seem to step forward out of shadow. Rubens returned to the theme of the Judgement of Paris on several occasions because it allowed him to
