Marcantonio Raimondi - engraver, Raffael - inventor, Antonio Salamanca - publisher - The Judgement of Paris
The engraving is regarded as one of the most significant prints of the Italian Renaissance. The scene captures the moment when Paris arbitrates concerning the beauty of the goddesses Juno, Minerva and Venus. Each of them offered the youth a reward for his favour. Paris eventually awarded the prize - a golden apple - to Venus, who helped him gain the love of the most graceful female mortal, Helen. Their love affair and Helen’s kidnapping led up to the Trojan War. The print is based on Raphael’s drawing which the painter executed especially for transferral to engraving. Giorgio Vasari claims that the composition bedazzled the entire Rome. The print has still not ceased to inspire artists even after many centuries - for example, Édouard Manet painted the group of figures featured upper right in his watershed canvas The Luncheon on the Grass, which he exhibited at the Salon of the Refused in 1863.
date:
measurements: height 296 mm
width 442 mm
in collections:
material: paper
technique: engraving
inventory number: R 6285
gallery collection: Collection of Prints and Drawings