Peter Paul Rubens, 'The Judgement of Paris', about 1597-9

This painting depicts a critical moment in classical mythology. The man on the left with his back to us is Paris, who had been raised as a shepherd, unaware that he was actually a prince of Troy. By fateful chance, he was asked to judge a beauty contest between three goddesses and to award a golden apple to the winner. Although the original story is Greek, here we see the Roman version with the goddesses Juno, Minerva and Venus, who is attended by Cupid. To help him make his decision, Paris has asked them to undress, while each goddess has also offered him a bribe.

We see Paris hand the apple to Venus, won over by her promise to reward him with the love of the most beautiful mortal woman – Helen, the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. It is a choice that will lead to Paris’ eventual abduction of Helen, the Greeks' attempts to recapture her and the siege and eventual destruction of Troy – the epic story told in Homer’s Iliad. Here, his decision is not depicted as a portent, but is hailed by the god Mercury standing behind him, while four putti descend from the sky to assist in Venus’ coronation. Juno, a look of fury developing on her face, reaches out as though to try to intervene, while Minerva, her back to us, has yet to react.

The scene was a popular one among patrons and artists in the seventeenth century – Rubens painted it six times, including a much later version which is also in the National Gallery’s collection. It evoked both literary learning and sexual frisson – an opportunity to display at least three female nudes in one painting, very often from different angles. The three women could be shown still competing for Paris’ attention or reacting to his decision. Here, Rubens seems to have changed his mind about which moment to depict. Preparatory sketches and pentimenti (earlier brushstrokes covered up by the artist but which have become visible over time) show that Paris’ right arm was originally bent round holding his crook, but Rubens decided to straighten it to show him holding out the apple to Venus.

Made in about 1600, when he was only 23, this is the earliest painting by Rubens in the National Gallery’s large collection of his works. It was made either just before he left his home town of Antwerp to travel to Rome, or soon after he arrived in Italy, and still shows much of the influence of his training in Flanders. The putti in the sky are very similar to figures by Rubens’s teacher, Otto van Veen, and the distant landscape is in the style of the Antwerp school of landscape painters. The composition is based on a design by Raphael, who was Italian – but this would have been available to Rubens in Antwerp as an engraving.

By depicting the muscular Paris naked in the foreground, Rubens invites us to compare ideals of the male and female nudes. The two figures peeping at the scene behind the foliage are satyrs, creatures associated with lust. They also remind us of our status as voyeurs, as does the water nymph seated with the river god on the right side of the painting. She is the only figure not preoccupied by the events of the moment, and gazes directly at us with a knowing look.