For Liberation Day in Italia, we present an 18th-century porcelain group of the Judgement of Paris produced in the Reale Fabbrica di Napoli (active 1771-1807). One of the largest compositions of the porcelain factory of the Bourbon king Ferdinand IV, it was modeled by Filippo Tagliolini (1745-1809). The piece is in the Cini Gallery of the Capitoline Museums, just one example from the large collection of Asian and European porcelains.
Greek mythology attributes the cause of the Trojan War to Paris’ judgement, whereas Roman myth-history links it through Aeneas to the foundation of the Rome The youthful shepherd and Trojan prince was asked by Zeus to choose the most beautiful of the goddesses, the one worthy of the golden apple that Eros (Strife) presented at the wedding of Thetis and Peleus. Each goddess offers a gift to sway Paris’ decision: Hera offers him power (kingship of Europe and Asia); Athena’s gift was wisdom and skill in war; the most beautiful woman in the world was Aphrodite’s winning bid. And so Paris took Helen, she of ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’, to cite Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.
#museicapitolini @ Musei Capitolin
