The Five Senses (pair of paintings)
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The Five Senses are a pair of oil paintings made by Jan Brueghel the Elder and others in 1617-1618, at the same time as he was working with Peter Paul Rubens on a series of five paintings on the same topic. The originals were lost in a fire in 1731; faithful copies dated to c. 1620 were preserved and are in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Brueghel, like Rubens, was at this time working in Antwerp at the court of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria, and his wife Isabella, governors of the Spanish Netherlands. Allegorical paintings representing the five senses as female nudes had become fashionable in the previous century, but Brueghel introduced the illustration of the theme by means of assemblages of works of art, musical instruments, scientific instruments and military equipment, accompanied by flowers, game and fish,[1] which was widely adopted by Flemish artists.
History
The two paintings were commissioned by the City of Antwerp to be presented to the archducal couple, and were executed by "twelve of the best masters of [the] city". They were paid for in October 1618.[2] In 1619 they were in the audience chamber at Tervuren castle. In 1731 they were destroyed in the fire at Coudenberg Palace. The surviving pair are close copies by Brueghel, Gerard Seghers, Frans Francken the Younger and Joost de Momper;[3][4][5] they were in Spain by 1633,[2] where they were housed in various royal palaces before becoming part of the foundation collection of the Prado in 1819.[3]