Judgment of Jupiter

* Nearly 20,000 images of artworks the museum believes to be in the public domain are available to download on this site. Other images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. By using any of these images you agree to LACMA's Terms of Use.

Judgment of Jupiter

1786-1787
Sculpture
Marble relief
58 1/4 × 117 1/4 × 5 in. (147.96 × 297.82 × 12.7 cm)
Gift of Anna Bing Arnold (M.79.37)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

John Deare, an English sculptor who spent his entire professional career in Rome, was commissioned by the Royal Academy to make this relief for an exhibition in 1787....
John Deare, an English sculptor who spent his entire professional career in Rome, was commissioned by the Royal Academy to make this relief for an exhibition in 1787. In style and subject matter it reflects the neoclassical taste for perfection. The philosophers of the Age of Reason believed that man and society, through the systematic study and emulation of both classical learning and arts, could return to a Golden Age paralleling that of classical antiquity. Deare's relief embodies this ideal. Deare's scene is from Homer's Iliad, a literary source for which contemporary archaeological discoveries had created renewed interest. The enthroned Jupiter sits among the gods at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis (at left), to which all except the goddess of discord, Eris, were invited. The spiteful Eris tossed a golden apple inscribed "to the fairest" among the guests, and Minerva, Juno, and Venus each claimed it. Jupiter, refusing to pick the most beautiful of this formidable trio, has handed the apple to his messenger, Mercury, who flies above, giving him instructions to pass it, and the thankless task, to the mortal prince, Paris. Deare represents the three goddesses challenging Jupiter. Paris's decision will ultimately lead to the Trojan War, here evoked by Mars, god of war, shown at the far right. Deare's carving varies from nearly flat background figures to others almost completely in the round, a Renaissance technique that gives the illusion of three-dimensional space. The forms of the bodies are idealized, smooth, and refined. This is the most important English neoclassical relief in the United States.
More...

Bibliography

  • Schaefer, Scott, and Peter Fusco. European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: an Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
  • Schaefer, Scott, and Peter Fusco. European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: an Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
  • Price, Lorna.  Masterpieces from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988.
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
More...