Puzzling Pictures: 'The Abduction of Helen by Paris', about 1450

Zanobi Strozzi
1412-1468

NG591

Why does this painting have an unusual, eight-sided shape, and what was it used for? It was made in Florence in the mid-15th century and was not originally eight-sided but twelve-sided the shape of a number of other paintings generally known as 'birth plates'. These were presented to women after or in anticipation of the birth of a child (such plates originally held food). But why should a respectable Florentine bride or mother be presented with a picture of a young wife being carried off by a man who was not her husband?

The figure at the centre is Helen, Queen of King Menelaus of Sparta, and she is being abducted by Paris. Not only is this adulterous, it also sparked off the Trojan war. Helen does not seem particularly distressed by her abductor's behaviour, and one of her companions appears almost to be dancing with her suitor. The picture is rather a celebration of beauty. Contemporaries would perhaps have been puzzled by any attempt to treat the subject too seriously, as it was usual to decorate 'birth plates' with amusing subjects.

Back to Puzzling Pictures

Find out more about this painting