This artist repeatedly depicted the Judgement of Paris, an episode in Homer's Iliad. Giordano's works on the subject can be found in many museums around the world. Compositionally the Hermitage painting is closest to the Judgement of Paris in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum (sadly, it was destroyed in the Second World War), and is a variant of it.
In the early 20th century Giordano's monumental Judgement of Paris and two other works by the artist (The Triumph of Galatea and The Rape of Europa) were installed without stretchers in the ceiling of the foyer of the Hermitage Theatre. The paintings which the artist never intended to be viewed from below nevertheless spent a whole century in that position.