The shepherd Paris judges Juno, Venus and Minerva and awards the golden apple to Venus (Ovid 'Heroides', XVI). According to the artist's notebook, work on the picture began in September 1716, Adriaen van der Werff working on it for sixteen weeks and his brother and assistant Pieter van der Werff for ten weeks. It was acquired in 1719 by the French Regent, the duc d'Orleans. An earlier treatment by Van der Werff of the same subject, dated 1712, was formerly in the Gemaldegalerie, Dresden (destroyed). This picture has just returned from conservation as part of a major project funded by the Getty Foundation.
