In this six plate series after Adriaen Collaert, seven figures from the episode of the Judgement of Paris are represented. The three contestants for Paris’ apple, Juno, Minerva and Venus, are each accompanied by an identifying attribute. Minerva is armed and holds a shield with the Gorgon’s head, Juno carries a sceptre and is accompanied by a peacock, and Venus, the winner, holds the apple in one hand while leading Cupid, the god of desire, with the other. Paris holds his shepherd’s staff under a tree, extending the apple towards the victor. Two other figures, Mercury and an older male figure, possibly Neptune as a river god, are not central to the narrative, but by incorporating them, Collaert shows his mastery as a draughtsman by presenting the nude forms in a variety of postures. Especially in the figures of Paris and the river god, it is possible that Collaert was looking to Marcantonio Raimondi’s Judgement of Paris after Raphael, an engraving from the 1510’s. In the Collaert series, each medallion is set in a dark field a decorated with intricate grotesques, sometimes relating to the central figure. Given the close association of grotesques with Roman wall decoration in the 16th and 17th centuries and the Classical theme of the central figures, the series displays a deep interest in emulating antique decorative art.