The Judgment of Paris

Mercury, in fanciful armor, presents three slender nude goddesses - Juno, Minerva, Venus - to the Trojan prince Paris, recast here as a dreamy German knight in plate armor, to judge which is fairest; Cupid takes aim from the clouds, and Venus will win with the bribe of Helen, the spark of the Trojan War. Cranach repeated this courtly subject many times, his nudes cool and mannered, sloping and small, dressed only in jewels and improbable hats. Friend and portraitist of Luther, whose likeness is also in this collection, here he paints for princely delight rather than the Reformation.