The wedding of Thetis and Peleus

Every god was invited to this wedding except Discord, and she came anyway. Jordaens catches the moment just after she has thrown a golden apple among the guests, marked for the most beautiful. Juno sits beside Jupiter, Venus has her small Cupid with her, and Minerva is there too. All three claim it. Jupiter holds the apple ready to pass to Mercury, who will carry the quarrel to Mount Ida and a shepherd named Paris. Paris chose Venus, who had promised him Helen, and the Trojan War came of it. The bride and groom watch the argument begin at their own table. Jordaens was working from a design by Rubens and moved the goddesses around, so that Minerva's head now sits above Venus's. He signed the canvas on the back of Peleus's chair, where the last digits of the year run under the frame and only I. IR. fecit Ao 16 can be read. A lithographer who copied the picture in Madrid in the 1830s recorded one digit more.