Jan Both and Cornelis van Poelenburgh, 'A Landscape with the Judgement of Paris', about 1645-50
About the work
Overview
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.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- A Landscape with the Judgement of Paris
- Artist
- Jan Both and Cornelis van Poelenburgh
- Artist dates
- about 1615 - 1652; 1594/5 - 1667
- Date made
- about 1645-50
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 97 × 129 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed by Richard Simmons, 1847
- Inventory number
- NG209
- Location
- Room 29
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 19th-century English Frame
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1830
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
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1907C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
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1960Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
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1991Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
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1996J. Edwards, Alexandre-Joseph Paillet: Expert et marchand de tableaux à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1996
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1997J.A. Spicer and L.F. Orr, Masters of Light: Dutch Painting from Utrecht in the Golden Age (exh. cat. Fine Arts Museums, 13 September - 30 November 1997; Walters Art Gallery, 11 January - 5 April 1998; The National Gallery, London, 6 May - 2 August 1998), San Francisco 1997
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.