Heemskerck painted relatively few pictures on a small scale such as this one, but even in this restricted format he employed all his usual ability with human anatomy, carefully integrated composition and humanist interpretation of classical antiquity. The figure on the extreme right is one of the artist’s most familiar models appearing in the Sybil in the Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle. The models for the nudes are familiar from the celebrated Forge of Vulcan in the Narodní Gallery at Prague. The subject was popular in the Renaissance both in Italy and the North and occurs in the work of Von Aachen and Lucas Cranach.   Paris the Shepherd is shown judging the three goddesses, on the right Juno with her peacock, on the left Minerva with her shield decorated with a gorgon’s head, and in the centre right Venus accompanied by Cupid and Mercury in the background. Paris is shown handing the golden apple to Venus.

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