The Judgment of Paris (c. 1545): Art, History and Details

The Judgment of Paris (c. 1545) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean Mignon (French, active c. 1535–55); Luca Penni (Italian, 1500/04–1557).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Printmaking at Fontainebleau flourished briefly during the 1540s and seems to have stopped altogether by 1547. Jean Mignon was one of the four major etchers whose works are most closely associated with the workshop there. Almost all of Mignon's prints reproduce drawings by Luca Penni (1500/4-1557), an Italian painter active at the chateau. Penni's Judgment of Paris derives from Marcantonio's famous engraving after Raphael. Here, jean Mignon's etching shows the shepherd Paris called upon to decide which of three goddesses (Juno, Minerva, or Venus) is the fairest. This mythological beauty contest leads to the Trojan War.

Object facts

• Title: The Judgment of Paris
• Date: c. 1545
• Creator attribution: Jean Mignon (French, active c. 1535–55); Luca Penni (Italian, 1500/04–1557)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Dimensions: Sheet: 30.7 x 41.7 cm (12 1/16 x 16 7/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1989.42

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.