Artist: Thomas Hering
Date: 1529
Size: 19 x 22 cm
Technique: Stone
The relief shows the Judgement of Paris in a variation that had become widespread since the Middle Ages. Here, Paris is not the son of the Trojan king, choosing which of the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite is the most beautiful and deciding in favour of the last. Instead, he is a knight to whom Mercury and the three goddesses appear in a dream. Presenting the encounter as a dream allowed the decision to be made according to new, moral criteria. Thus it is not the seductive Aphrodite whom the knight chooses but Hera, who is being led to him by Mercury and is wearing a bonnet that according to the fashion of those times was usual for married women. The features of the knight are those of Count Palatinate Ottheinrich, while Hera bears the features of Ottheinrich’s wife, Susanna. They married in 1529, and the relief would have been made for that occasion.
Artist |
|
|---|---|
Download |
|
Permissions |
Free for non commercial use. See below. |
 |
This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. However - you may not use this image for commercial purposes and you may not alter the image or remove the watermark. This applies to the United States, Canada, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.
|
Note that a few countries have copyright terms longer than 70 years: Mexico has 100 years, Colombia has 80 years, and Guatemala and Samoa have 75 years. This image may
not be in the public domain in these countries, which moreover do not implement the
