Paris aan Venus de appel gevende 1680 - 1715

Editor: We're looking at "Paris aan Venus de appel gevende," or "Paris awarding the apple to Venus" by François Boitard, made with pen and ink sometime between 1680 and 1715. It feels unfinished, like a sketch, but I find that adds to its charm. What catches your eye about this work? Curator: As a historian, I see this drawing as participating in a longer history of representing power dynamics through classical narratives. The Judgement of Paris was a common subject. But instead of focusing on idealized beauty, Boitard renders these mythological figures in a manner that arguably humanizes them. The quick pen strokes and unfinished quality invite the viewer to participate in the scene's construction. It's less about a perfect, divine Venus, and more about the implications of judgment itself. Editor: That's fascinating. It also seems like the very *act* of judging beauty is put on display rather than beauty itself. Would this have had any impact on the artist's contemporaries? Curator: Absolutely. During Boitard's time, the academies dictated strict notions of beauty and form. This sketch seems to gently push against that, almost like a whispered critique of those institutions and their control over artistic expression. What do you think Boitard might be saying by not completing the piece? Editor: Perhaps he's implying that judgement is never truly finished, it is always in progress, an ongoing deliberation. It seems that I was thinking only about its incompleteness as a composition when actually it may point towards a broader social commentary on the reception of art. Thank you! Curator: And thank you! You've given me a fresh perspective on how its reception informs the reading of its production.