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Description: | Daniel Seiter (1649-1705) was born in Vienna but trained in Venice under J. C. Loth and Bartolomeo Giudobono, he subsequently travelled to Rome where he studied the work of the Bolognese school of the early seventeenth century and of Pietro da Cortona, whose manner he was to be particularly influenced by. In 1688 he left the Eternal City to take up a position as court painter to the House of Savoy in Turin where he remained for the rest of his life retaining positions of some eminence. The Judgement of Paris is one of two works by Seiter at Chiswick, both are on a monumental scale, conceived along the classicising principals of Pietro da Cortona's late style which Seiter interprets through the lens of Carlo Maratta's influential court style of formalised Classicism. In this painting such formal concerns are revealed in the self-conscious posing of Venus (identified by Cupid accompanying her) and Minerva (with the helmet at her feet) so that they mirror each other, revealing the artist's ability at representing the female nude from both front and back. Similar concerns govern Seiter's representation of Paris and Mercury, at lower left, revealing his academic study of the male torso. The Trojan prince, Paris is seen frontally, reclining across the foreground, while standing near by Mercury is seen from behind to reveal the musculature of his back, as he leans over Paris to tell him Jupiter's wish, that he should make the final decision in the beauty contest between Venus, Minerva and Juno (seated on the cloud above). The winner, Venus - who offered Paris the love of any woman he chose - received the prized golden apple, while she initiated Paris' fateful love for the Spartan princess Helen, which would lead to the fall of his native Troy. | Subjects: | mythology (The Judgement of Paris) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Seiter, Daniel (Austrian painter and draftsman, 1649-1705, active in Italy) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8731... | Go to resource |
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