The Judgment of Paris

Alessandro Turchi, known as L'Orbetto, was born in Verona in 1578 and trained under Felice Brusasorci before moving to Rome, where he became one of the most accomplished painters of his generation working across mythological, religious, and devotional subjects. The Judgment of Paris, painted around 1650 and among his late works, depicts the mythological scene in which the Trojan prince Paris awards the golden apple to Aphrodite over Hera and Athena — the moment that set in motion the events leading to the Trojan War. Turchi was particularly praised in his own time for his graceful treatment of the female figure, and the Judgment of Paris gave full scope to this facility: three goddesses displayed for comparison. His later Roman period showed increasing sophistication of surface treatment and a classicizing tendency that distinguished him from both the northern Italian Mannerist tradition in which he trained and the dramatic Caravaggism that dominated contemporaneous Roman and Neapolitan production. The work demonstrates the sustained vitality of mythological painting in mid-seventeenth-century Italy.

Oil paint executed with Turchi's characteristic smooth surface finish and graceful figural elongation. The three goddesses are differentiated through attribute, pose, and expression. Light is diffuse rather than dramatically tenebrist, in keeping with the mythological subject's sensuous rather than devotional tone. Color plays an important role in distinguishing the figures.