A seated shepherd with his chin on his hand and a spotted dog beside him looks on as a man in a winged hat, holding a golden apple, turns toward three nude women at the right. A small Cupid flies above them with a garland, a second child stands at their feet, a peacock sits behind the woman at the far right, and a helmet and shield lie on the ground. Sheep graze in a meadow far behind. In the myth, the shepherd Paris must decide which of three goddesses is the most beautiful, and Mercury brings him the golden apple for the winner.

Juno's peacock and Minerva's helmet and shield identify two of them. Peter Paul Rubens painted this version around 1638 on a personal commission from King Philip IV of Spain, who ordered it in 1637–38. The king's brother, the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, governor of the Southern Netherlands, managed the commission and wrote about it in several letters, rating it among Rubens's best works but worrying about the nudity of the three women. The painting reached Madrid in 1639 and hung in the Buen Retiro palace; it is based on a design Rubens had made for a ewer.

It is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.