The unusual representation of the subject derives from a medieval romance, Guido da Columna's Historia destructionis Troiae. This tells how Paris, having lost his way in a thicket, ties his horse to a tree and falls into a deep slumber. Mercury appears to him in his sleep and presents to him Venus, Athena and Juno, demanding that he decide which of the three is fairest; he complies only after the goddesses have undressed at his behest.

Dieter Koepplin and Tilman Falk, loc. cit., describe the present picture as 'Workshop(?) of Lucas Cranach the Elder' and date it 'c.1507 or later'. While recording Stange's and Strieder's doubts about this early dating, they point out that Cranach had apprentices from 1507 and that the costume of Mercury, the facial types and the unusual iconography all suggest that it was executed before Cranach's woodcut of the same subject of 1508