A Landscape with the Judgement of Paris

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Buy a print or image licence

You can purchase this reproduction

If you have any products in your basket we recommend that you complete your purchase from Art UK before you leave our site to avoid losing your purchases.

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

This appears to depict a moment of bliss: an idyllic landscape, painted in an Italianate style by Jan Both, is suffused with the warm glow of a summer’s evening. In the foreground a group of elegantly poised nudes, added by Both’s collaborator Cornelis van Poelenburgh, catches the sunlight.But this is no idyll, and we are witnessing a tragic turning point in mythological history: the Judgement of Paris. Jupiter has asked Paris to judge which of three goddesses -- Juno, Minerva and Venus -- is the most beautiful. Paris chooses Venus by handing her a golden apple. As a reward she promises him Helen, the beautiful wife of a Greek king. Helen's abduction leads to the Trojan wars and the destruction of Troy.Van Poelenburgh and Both had studied in Italy before they returned to Utrecht and were part of a group of Dutch artists who created a taste among their patrons for Italianate landscape painting.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

A Landscape with the Judgement of Paris

Date

about 1645-50

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 97 x W 129 cm

Accession number

NG209

Acquisition method

Bequeathed by Richard Simmons, 1847

Work type

Painting

Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

View venue