Oordeel van Paris 1580 - 1596

Zacharias Dolendo created this engraving, “The Judgement of Paris”, around 1600. Note the figures of Venus, Juno, and Pallas as they stand before Paris. The winged Cupid floats above, ready to inflame passions. This scene is a cultural touchstone, reappearing across epochs, each time imbued with the anxieties and desires of its age. The serpent at the feet of Pallas is particularly striking, a symbol of wisdom, but also of deceit and primal instinct. Think of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, a motif that slithers through art history, shedding its skin and reappearing in new contexts. The "Judgement of Paris" is not merely an aesthetic exercise; it is a mirror reflecting our own complex relationship with beauty, desire, and judgment, an eternal return of the repressed. Each viewing is thus a confrontation with our own subconscious.