The Judgement of Paris

What it is

This engraving, made by Marcantonio Raimondi after a design by Raphael, shows the mythological scene of the Judgement of Paris: a young man choosing among three goddesses, watched by Cupid, with gods above in the sky. The original fresco design by Raphael is lost, and the composition survives only through this print, now held at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.

Why it matters

Because Raphael's original is lost, this engraving is the main record of his composition, showing how prints spread an artist's ideas across Europe long after the original artwork disappeared. The design later became famous again when the French painter Édouard Manet used its arrangement of figures as the basis for his own controversial painting, Déjeuner sur l'herbe, centuries later.

Look closer

• Why might an engraving be the only surviving record of an artist's design?
• What does the survival of this print through copying tell us about how art ideas traveled before photography?
• How does knowing a later artist reused this composition change how you look at it?