The Five Senses

The Five Senses as a complete allegorical series was one of the most ambitious undertakings in Gonzales Coques's career, and this Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp panel presenting all five together — or a single overarching composition representing the suite — dates to a remarkably early point given the 1614 date, placing it near the very beginning of his output. The Five Senses tradition in Netherlandish art descended from Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, who had collaborated on allegorical paintings that used lavishly furnished interiors to embody each sense through its characteristic objects and activities. Coques absorbed this tradition while miniaturising it, fitting what Rubens had rendered on large canvases into intimate panel paintings suited to the private chambers of Antwerp collectors. The subject allowed painters to demonstrate range: still life for the objects, portraiture for the figures, architecture for the setting, and landscape for any outdoor elements. This work's presence in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp places it in the city where Coques spent his entire career.

Panel support with the fine-grained preparation suited to highly detailed small-scale work. The multi-figure composition demands careful spatial organisation to give each sense its characteristic emblems while maintaining legibility. Coques employs warm interior lighting that picks out jewels, instruments, flowers, food, and fabrics — the sensory props that anchor each allegory. Paint application is smooth and glazed throughout.