A small statue of a young man, of Italian workmanship, the torso slightly twisted and the weight taken on the right foot, the left knee bent; head turned half-right and looking downward. His right arm is behind his back, the hand holding an apple. The left arm is missing, broken off from just below the shoulder. On the left leg is a slight projection, probably the point of a missing wand or staff, held in the left hand. A tree stump the figure's right serves as a support.

This statue depicts Paris, a young man raised as a shepherd but actually a prince of Troy. In Greek myth he takes centre stage in the famous ‘Judgement of Paris’, a beauty contest between Goddesses. This happens after Eris, goddess of discord, is not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. She is so furious that she hurls a golden apple inscribed ‘To the fairest’ into the midst of the attendant goddesses. Three claim the title – Hera, Athena and Aphrodite (to the Romans Juno, Minerva and Venus) – and Zeus (Jupiter) nominates Paris to make the choice. He is shown here on the point of making his judgment, with the hand holding the apple hidden behind his back prior to his handing it to Aphrodite, goddess of beauty. She had bribed him with the promise that, if he chose her, she would give him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. This led to his abduction of Helen,triggering the Trojan War.

The statue bears some resemblance to a Paris in the Vatican, wearing a Phrygian cap, which has, in contrast, the right arm extended.

The 1837 AB copy of the Museum's inventory records that this statue was at that point 'painted'.

Unknown.

S. Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, Vol. 1, Paris 1906-1924, p.500