Smell

"Smell" belongs to Jan Brueghel the Elder's celebrated series of the Five Senses, painted in 1617–18 in collaboration with Peter Paul Rubens and now held at the Museo del Prado. The Senses allegories were commissioned by Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella of the Spanish Netherlands and rank among the most ambitious collaborative projects of the Flemish Baroque. In the Smell panel, an Arcadian garden overflowing with flowers, perfume vessels, and fragrant plants embodies the olfactory sense, while the female figure — painted by Rubens — handles a bloom against a lush background by Brueghel. The encyclopaedic accumulation of botanical specimens reflects the contemporary European passion for natural history; the series functioned simultaneously as sensory allegory and as a virtual cabinet of curiosities. Brueghel identified more than a hundred distinct plant species in the Smell panel alone, each painted from botanical specimens or herbarium drawings.

Applied on panel, the paint surface exhibits Brueghel's hallmark microscopic touch in the flower passages, where individual petals carry subtle veining. Rubens's broader, more gestural handling of the figure creates a deliberate textural dialogue. The picture retains exceptional surface freshness, preserving the original luminosity of the flower colours.