"The Judgment of Paris"
Lucas Cranach the Elder
This piece is of two men and three women standing in the woods talking. The men are fully clothed while the women only have on jewels and a hat. If you look very closely you can see that the women have on a clear shear cloth that is wrapped around their waist. Also up in the left hand corner is cupid getting ready to send love to someone. I get the sense that the man in the brown attire is offering these ladies as a token to the other man. In today's society, this is usually called prostitution and the man holding the glass ball is their pimp.
Painted about 1528, this picture is a mythological painting of an event that happened prior to the Trojan War starting. Lucas depicts Paris, dressed in a contemporary suit of armor, as he deliberates over the fairest of three goddesses: Minerva, Venus, and Juno. While Mercury stands nearby holding the converted prize a golden apple (here transformed into a glass orb). Cupid aims his arrow at Venus, signaling Paris’s decision in favor of the goddess of love.
I think this is a great picture to reflect prostitution in a long ago time period. Dressing the women up with jewelry but still showing off their "assets." The only thing that I feel is contradicting to this is cupid. Unless this is an early example of the movie "Pretty Woman" where the man will eventually fall in love with the prostitute he chooses. Who knows, maybe " Pretty Woman" was based on this photo. Interesting thought.
ReplyDeleteWhen I view this picture, I get a sense of innocence from the three young ladies and two men who are dwelling in the moment of lust. I feel that cupid is sending his arrow of love to attract two different individuals. Two different types of people that possibly share no similar interests in life but has strong attractions towards one another.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a good picture, I myself say some like this I was debating on posting. I see this picture as a rich man and looking at a line up of females for sale. The man is in lust and looking for pleasure but cupid wants to bring love to someone in the picture. I think maybe to the men to see a deeper side to us woman verses just the outer body appearance.
ReplyDeleteMy first impression was that it represented Colombus getting to the Americas and liking the "uncivilized" women. But now that i read your perspective of the painting it has changed my view of it... it also caught my attention the fact that he paints them naked and the cupid. In both pictures. I wonder why he painted the cupid in both pictures...
ReplyDeleteMy first thought is why is the females are nake. After reading your post, I understand.
ReplyDeletemy first thought remind me of Adam and eve
ReplyDelete