Judgement of Paris

The painting entitled the Judgement of Paris was on loan to the collection of the Society of the Patriotic Friends of the Arts by Count Sternberg-Manderscheid as early as 1803. In 1941 it was in the possession of Paul Sonnenschein, from whom it was confiscated by the Gestapo as a work intended for Hitler’s museum in Linz. It is copy after a work of Hans von Aachen held in Douai (Musée de la Chartreuse), more precisely after the copper engraving by Raphael I Sadeler. In the line of copies, the painting from the National Gallery in Prague is one of the earliest (c. 1600) and of the best quality. It differs from most of the other copies. It lacks the torso of a temple in the background behind Paris - a motif, which the other copies adopted from Sadeler’s engraving -, which is missing in the original from Douai, though. It is therefore possible that the author of the Prague copy knew the original, as well, or that this copy was made on the basis of another, now lost version by Aachen.