The Judgement of Paris / Legs and Torso of a Nude Man
Second half of the XVII century. Wash, Pencil, Pencil ground, Red chalk, Grey-brown ink on yellow paper. Not on displayThe composition is that of a lost painting of the subject by Veronese, carried out for the Fondaco dei Turchi, Venice, the appearance of which is known from an engraving published in 1691. A painted version of the same composition, from the School of Veronese, is in the Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library, Bucknell University, Lewisburg. The Lewisburg picture corresponds in all essentials to the design of the Prado copy.
the free pen-and-wash style of the drawing is strongly reminiscent of the work of Luca Giordano, and it is not impossible that he may have made the copy while in Spain, where he would also have written the (Spanish) inscription crediting Veronese as the inventor of the composition. Andreas Lobo de Antunes has kindly pointed out to me that a painting of The Judgement of Paris, from the School of Veronese, belonged to the Spanish Royal Collection at the time that Giordano was active there.
The verse shows a fragment of an academy and is not necessarily by the same hand as the recto.
