IKONOTHEKA 29, 2019 Sara Benninga deparTmenT oF arT hisTory, Tel aviv universiTy [email protected] The Changing Perception of the Five Senses Abstract This article examines the changing approach towards the representation of the senses in 17th-century Flemish painting. These changes are related to the cultural politics and courtly culture of the Spanish sovereigns of the Southern Netherlands, the Archdukes Albert and Isabella. The 1617–18 painting-series of the Five Senses by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens as well as the pendant paintings on the subject are analyzed in relation to the iconography of the five senses, and in regard to Flemish genre themes. In this context, the excess of objects, paintings, scientific instruments, animals, and plants in the Five Senses are read as an expansion of the iconography of the senses as well as a reference to the courtly material culture of the Archdukes. Framing the senses as part of a cultural web of artifacts, Brueghel and Rubens refer both to elite lived experience and traditional iconography. The article examines the continuity between the iconography of the senses from 1600 onwards, as developed by Georg Pencz, Frans Floris, and Maerten de Vos, and the representation of the senses in the series. In addition, the article shows how certain elements in the paintings are influenced by genre paintings of the courtly company and collector’s cabinet, by Frans Francken, Lucas van Valckenborch and Louis de Caullery. Through the synthesis of these two traditions the subject of the five senses is reinvented in a courtly context. Keywords: Jan Brueghel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, Flanders, 17th century, five senses, courtly company, collector’s cabinet, archdukes, early-modern In 1617 the Antwerp based artists Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens worked on a series of the five senses. The series was signed by Jan Brueghel the Elder, who was also responsible for the design; Rubens painted the figures in each of the paintings.1 A few years after this series, the two collaborated again, along with ten 1 It is unclear whether the series was commissioned by the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, or another patron. For the different theories on the subject see J. Müller Hofstede, “‘Non Satura- tur Oculus Visu’ – Zur ‘Allegorie des Gesichts von Peter Paul Rubens und Jan Brueghel d. Ä’”, 103 Sara Benninga other Antwerp masters, to create the pendant paintings of Sight and Smell and Taste, Hearing and Touch, which were commissioned by the Archdukes of the Netherlands, Albert and Isabella. Both series of the senses show personifications of Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste and Hearing, portrayed in courtly settings, surrounded by paintings, sculptures, luxury objects of different sorts, as well as symbolic animals. Relying on the Flem- ish iconography of the senses, on the one hand, and on new genre subjects which developed at the time, on the other, the paintings show an appreciation of courtly life, and of the peaceful times that were achieved during the reign of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella. Flanders, the “Spanish Netherlands”, knew times of prosperity alongside po- litical instability and conflict. Between 1550 and 1584 Antwerp was an economic center of trade and scientific development.2 With the Sack of Antwerp in 1576, its prominent role began to decline, and finally came to an end in 1584–85 with its fall to Spanish rule.3 From then on, The Spanish crown appointed a governor to rule over the Flemish territories. In 1599 the Archduke of Austria, Albert, and his wife, Isabella Clara Eugenia, the daughter of Philip II, were made sovereigns of Flanders. They aspired to rebuild Flanders after many years of wars, allocating funds towards the replacement of churches and altarpieces destroyed or damaged during the pre- ceding years of war and iconoclasm. They also participated in common festivities, weddings and celebrations, promoting a vision of unity and prosperity. 4 In addition, the signing of the Twelve Years Truce in 1609 between the Hapsburg rulers of Spain and Southern Netherlands, and the Northern provinces, brought about renewed hopes for financial and cultural flourishing during the time of peace. In this context, in: Wort und Bild in der niederländischen Kunst und Literatuer des 16. Und 17. Jh., eds. H. Bekeman, J. Müller Hofstede, Erfstadt, 1984, pp. 243–245; K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568–1625). Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Köln, 1979, pp. 336–337; A. T. Woollett, A. van Suchtelen, Rubens and Brueghel: A Working Friendship, Los Angeles, 2006, p. 94. 2 Regarding luxury trade see A. K. L. Thijs, “De Antwerpse luxenijverheid: winstbejag en kunst- zin”, in: Antwerpen. Verhaal van een metropool, ed. J. van der Stock, Ghent, 1993. On the growing middle-class clientele see B. Timmermans, “The Elite as Collectors and Middlemen in the Ant- werp Art World of the Seventeenth Century,” in: Munuscula Amicorum, ed. K. van der Stighelen, Turnhout, 2006, vol. 2, pp. 343–362. Regarding the scientific advancement see G. Vanpaemel, “Science for Sale: The Metropolitan Stimulus for Scientific Achievements in Sixteenth-century Antwerp”, in: Urban Achievement in Early Modern Europe, ed. P. O’Brien, Cambridge, 2001, p. 292. 3 In 1575 the Spanish Crown declared bankruptcy and was unable to pay the Spanish soldiers in Flanders. The soldiers consequently sacked Antwerp, killing citizens and destroying parts of the city. This is described in a report by the Council of State, see J. Cowans ed., Early Modern Spain. A Documentary History, Philadelphia, 2003, pp. 110–111; For Spain’s battles in the Netherlands and Flanders see G. Parker, Spain and the Netherlands, Glasgow, 1979, pp. 44–63. 4 J. I. Israel, Conflicts of Empires. Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy 1585– 1713, London, 1997, pp. 7–12. All over Europe, peace allowed for expenditure previously used for military aims, to be spent on courtly banquets, festivities, clothing, and food, see J. H. Elliott, Spain, Europe and the Wider World 1500–1800, New Haven, 2009, pp. 264–265. 104 The Changing Perception of the Five Senses Albert and Isabella practiced cultural politics, in which peace and prosperity were seen as an ideal goal and the arts were considered a useful tool that helped to dem- onstrate the power and flourishing of the Southern Netherlands.5 The paintings of the five senses are very much an outcome of this vision, visu- ally expressing the prosperity of Flanders under a peaceful reign. In what follows I will analyze the paintings of the five senses in relation to the iconography of the subject, on the one hand, and in regard to the arising genre themes, on the other. This analysis will highlight the changing approach towards the senses in 17th centu- ry Flanders, as an outcome of the Archdukes’ cultural politics and courtly culture.6 The Sense of Sight shows a nude personification of the sense of sight sitting beside a table (Fig. 1). She is looking at a painting of Christ healing the blind man (John 9:1–7), held up by a winged putto. She gestures towards the painting, and leans her head on her other arm, contemplating it. Jewelry made of precious stones, as well as medals and a magnifying glass are laid out on the table before her. The room she is sitting in is a collector’s cabinet, a Kunstkammer. It is full of magnificent objects: paintings are hung on the walls, propped up on stands and on each other; antique busts of famous rulers such as Alexander the Great and Augustus stand on shelves in the rear of the room; replicas of statues by Michelangelo stand above the busts; optical instruments such as the telescope, lay scattered at the personifica- tion’s feet, along with measuring instruments, tapestries, and more. The room is so full it is hard to account for all that is in it. Through an arched doorway we see a terrace with a fountain, and beyond that the Archdukes’ residence on the Coudenberg, the palace from which the sovereigns of Flanders ruled since the 11th century.7 The fullness and variety of objects is characteristic of the five paintings in the series. In Sense of Hearing the nude female personification is busy playing the lute and singing (Fig. 2). She is accompanied by the putto, as in the Sense of Sight, and her symbolic animal, the stag. In the left foreground a variety of musical instruments and notes can be seen, while on the right there are clocks, identified with hearing 5 J. H. Elliott, op. cit., pp. 269–270. 6 The tradition of the five senses in the Christian West is a long one, spanning from early Christi- anity and into the modern age. While the early Church fathers and medieval theologians viewed the senses in a moralizing light, as a gateway to sin, changes to this approach can be traced back to the beginning of the 16th century. The Flemish visual tradition of the senses referred to throughout this article is already influenced by this change of appreciation, and thus views the senses in a more positive light. For the history of the senses and the medieval tradition see C. Nordenfalk, “The Five Senses in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 1985, 48, pp. 1–22. For the history of the senses in the Flemish Re- naissance see C. Nordenfalk, “The Five Senses in Flemish Art before 1600”, in: Netherlandish Mannerism: Papers Given at a Symposium in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm, Sept. 21–22, 1984, ed. G. Cavalli-Björkman, Stockholm, 1985, pp. 135–154. 7 A. T. Woollett, A.