invited – save one. Poseidon, god of the
Sea, is front and center, seated on a large
?sh with a trident at his feet and holding
a nautilus-shell cup. Zeus is further back
next to his symbol, the eagle, surrounded
by other gods and mortals. Missing from
the festivities is Eris, the goddess of
discord. With a well-deserved reputation
for causing trouble, Eris was rarely invited
to Olympian events. Furious at being left
off the guest list once again, Eris schemed
to create havoc. She tossed a golden apple
into the middle of the banquet with the
inscription “For the Fairest.” Immediately,
the three most powerful and beautiful
goddesses – Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena
– stepped forward, each assuming the
golden apple was meant for her. Zeus was
asked to choose between them, but wisely
declined. No other god stepped forward
with an opinion, so it was decided that the
handsome mortal Paris, son of King Priam
of Troy, should judge. Each one bribed
Paris, but it was Aphrodite’s promise of
the love of the most beautiful woman in
the world that swayed him. This woman
turned out to be Helen, the wife of King
Menelaus of Sparta. When the lovers ?ed
Sparta for Troy, Menelaus organized his
army to attack Troy, thus beginning the
Trojan War.
The impending chaos is only vaguely
referenced in the lower left corner, with
Cupid seated next to a shield, helmet and
sword. Almost directly above the shield
and helmet, we ?nd a lone ?gure retreating
in the distance, in front of the mouth of a
cave. This may be the excluded Eris.
The Painting
The painting was donated to the Museum
in 1958 by Mr. and Mrs. Archie Joslin,
New York collectors originally from
Rock Hill, SC. The painting is quite large
at 42 x 75 inches, and painted on four
joined wooden panels – not on canvas,
which was the more common support
material at the time. This painting was
an important addition since it is the only
painting of a mythological narrative from
the Renaissance or Baroque periods in the
Museum’s collection. Painted sometime in
the ?rst quarter of the 17th century, the
painting exhibits many of the hallmarks
of the new Baroque style: a return to
naturalistic forms in the treatment of the
?gure, the use of diagonals to animate
the space, and an overall theatricality
highlighted by the red drapery in the tree
and the putti ?ying overhead distributing
?owers. Still, we ?nd some holdovers from
the earlier Mannerist phase with the densely
packed space, slight elongation in the
female ?gures, and the extreme diagonal
recession of the table recalling the work of
the Venetian mannerist artist Tintoretto.
The painting has suffered from a series
of earlier conservation attempts that
had left it with discolored and disturbing
passages that rui ned the visual effect of
the painting. In addition, a harsh cleaning
had stripped some of the original paint
surface – particularly noticeable in the
sky that had then been painted over with
a ?at blue and grey, eliminating any sense
of a recession of space. Other areas of
earlier retouching had discolored, causing
a splotched appearance in the skin tones,
and still other areas had been completely,
and unnecessarily, repainted over original
paint. Due to the complexity of the
treatment, the painting was sent to the
Williamstown Art Conservation Center
in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where
a large team of conservators includes a
specialist in 17th century panel paintings.
Testing was done on a variety of paint
samples to ascertain the composition of
the paint surface, and the artist’s palette
and technique were studied in consultation
with art historians. At least four previous
restoration campaigns were revealed during
treatment and the painstaking process of
removing that paint without disturbing the
original paint layer was begun. Once this
paint was removed, the conservator began
Detail (before treatment, in normal light)
Detail (before treatment, under ultraviolet light).
Darkened spots show areas of earlier in-painting.
Opposite page: Jan Breughel the Elder and Hendrick
van Balen, The Marriage of Thetis and Peleus. c. 1620.
CMA 1958.42 (after treatment)
to apply paint to the areas of loss (called
in-painting) using water soluble paint
which is easily removable. The end result is
a painting that more accurately re?ects the
artist’s original intention.
The painting will be the focus of a small
installation in the Caroline Guignard
Gallery on the ?rst ?oor in early 2011,
before moving to the upstairs galleries.
columbiamuseum.org
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