Landscape with Mercury presenting the golden apple to Paris; and Landscape with the Judgement of Paris

Although born in the Tuscan town of Pistoia, Gimignani spent almost his entire life in Rome where he established himself as a classicizing courtly painter. Initially in the 1630s he worked under Pietro da Cortona for the Barberini family and Gimignani's brilliant use of color and painterly surface betray the enduring influence of his master. However, he was also responsive to the more austere, formal compositions of Domenichino and Poussin, which endeared him to French collectors, among them François Annibal d'Estrees who commissioned Rinaldo and Armida in the Enchanted Forest (Musée de Ville, Bouxwiller).

In the present paintings, Gimignani vividly depicts the Judgement of Paris. As recounted in the Iliad, Paris, tasked by Zeus with resolving a divine dispute, is approached by Mercury with a golden apple inscribed 'to the fairest'. The three rival goddesses—Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite—offer him bribes to secure his favor: Hera promises dominion over all lands, Athena offers wisdom and military prowess, and Aphrodite guarantees the love of Helen of Sparta, the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris’s decision to award the apple to Aphrodite, swayed by her seductive promise, sparks the abduction of Helen and the ensuing conflict that devastates Troy (Iliad 24.25–30).