The Dream of Paris
Monogrammist PG·1536
Historical Context
The Monogrammist PG painted The Dream of Paris in 1536, depicting the mythological judgment that launched the Trojan War. This anonymous German painter, identified only by initials, worked in the tradition of Lucas Cranach and the German Renaissance, combining classical mythology with the detailed landscape backgrounds favored by Northern European painters. The Paris subject was popular in German Renaissance art as a vehicle for displaying the female nude in a mythological context.
Technical Analysis
The oil on panel combines detailed landscape painting with the classicizing figure style of the German Renaissance. The elaborate forest setting and carefully observed natural details frame the mythological scene with the encyclopedic attention to the natural world characteristic of German painting.
Provenance
Dr. Reuling, Baltimore, 1902 [according to the catalogue of the Stillwell sale]. Dr. John E. Stillwell, New York, by 1927; sold, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, Dec. 1–3, 1927, no. 454, as Georg Pentz [sic], to Kleinberger for $4,750 [according to Charles Worcester’s annotation on the back of a photo in the curatorial file]. Kleinberger, New York and Paris, 1927–Oct. 1928; sold to Charles H. Worcester, Chicago, 1928 [invoice dated Oct. 13, 1928, Art Institute Archives; copy in curatorial file]; on loan to the AIC from 1928; given to the AIC, 1940.
