You Can Smell The Flowers In A 17th-Century Painting At This 'Olfactory Exhibition' In Spain's Prado Museum

The Museo Nacional del Prado in Spain is linking painting to the sense of smell. It is organising an exhibition that incorporates fragrance to enhance the experience of a 17th-century painting.

The Sense of Smell, a painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens | Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Museo del Prado

New Delhi: The Museo Nacional del Prado, a museum in Madrid, Spain, is linking painting to the sense of smell. The museum is organising an exhibition that incorporates fragrance to enhance the experience of a 17th-century painting.

The Essence Of A Painting: An Olfactory Exhibition

The Sense of Smell, a painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, will be on display until July 3, 2022, in Room 83 of the Villanueva building, and is the focus of “The Essence of a Painting: An Olfactory Exhibition”. Visitors can not only look at the oil painting, but can also enjoy ten fragrances inspired by it.

According to a statement issued by the museum, the painting is curated by Alejandro Vergara, chief curator at the Museo Nacional del Prado, and Gregorio Sola, senior perfumer at Puig and an academician of the Perfume Academy. Sola has created ten fragrances associated with elements in the 17th-century painting. Puig, a fashion and fragrance business based in Barcelona, has developed a special technology called "AirParfum", which makes it possible to appreciate up to 100 different fragrances without overloading one's sense of smell, while respecting the identity and different notes of each perfume. 

“The Essence of a Painting: An Olfactory Exhibition” represents a new approach to the Prado's collections through the sense of smell, the statement said.

The Sense of Smell Painting

The Sense of Smell painting is a part of the series on "The Five Senses" executed by Jan Brueghel in 1617 and 1618. The five senses are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

The allegorical figures in the series were painted by Brueghel's friend Rubens.

Brueghel's work on The Sense of Smell elicits the garden of rare trees and plants belonging to Infanta Clara Eugenia, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands in the Low Countries and the north of modern France, and her husband, Archduke Albert VII of Austria, in early 17th-century Brussels. Brueghel worked as a court painter for them. 

It is said that Infanta Clara Eugenia and Albert of Austria had commissioned the series on "The Five Senses". 

Brueghel's work depicts more than 80 species of plants and flowers, and various animals associated with the sense of smell, such as the scent of hound and civet, and a range of objects relating to the world of perfume, Museo del Prado said on its website. 

The objects include scented gloves, vessels holding fragrant substances, a perfume burner warmed in a sumptuous brazier, and vessels for distilling essences.

The exotic plants depicted in The Sense of Smell painting had to be kept in a greenhouse in winter in the north of Europe.

In the painting, the figures of Venus and Cupid stand out in an orchard with a variety of flowers, including lilies, roses, hollylocks, and tulips.

The painting consists of the "Allegory of Smell", which is the figure of a woman. She personifies the allegory as a female, the museum explained in a video.

She is with a boy, a little cupid, who is giving her a bouquet of flowers. The painting also depicts the African civet, whose glandular secretion was formerly used in fine fragrances. Sola explained in the video that no animal was harmed while creating the fragrances associated with the elements in the painting.

10 Fragrances That Can Be Smelled In The Exhibition

People who visit the exhibition can appreciate different elements depicted in the painting through the sense of smell. 

In order to achieve this, perfumer Sola has created 10 fragrances which include "Allegory", "Gloves", "Fig Tree", "Orange blossom", "Jasmine", "Rose", "Iris", "Daffodil" and "Spikenard".

The fragrance "Allegory" encourages viewers to focus on the small bouquet of flowers which the allegorical figure of smell holds in her right hand, according to the museum. The ingredients of this perfume are rose, jasmine, and carnation.

The fragrance "Gloves'' reproduces the smell of gloves scented with ambergris, using a recipe from 1696. It consists of resins, balms, wood, and flower essences with a hint of suede.

"Fig Tree" is a perfume which interprets the green, humid fragrance under the shade of a refreshing fig tree on a summer day.

Neroli is the essential oil distilled from orange blossoms and used in perfumery. One can smell the "Orange blossom" fragrance at the exhibition.

The fragrance "Jasmine" is created by submerging jasmine flowers in a fatty, volatile liquid, which causes the flowers' aromatic components to be enriched. 

The scent of "Jasmine" is delicate, yet intense. 

The "Rose" perfume smells fresh, floral, velvety, and intense with green facets and a slight fruity touch, combined with spicy notes and a subtle hint of honey. 

In order to obtain one kilogram of essence, three hundred thousand roses, picked early in the morning, are required.

Brueghel had included eight varieties of roses in his painting.

In order to produce the "Daffodil" perfume, solvent extraction is performed by applying volatile solvents to daffodil flowers. "Daffodil" has a unique fragrance which is strong and intoxicating, with subtle hints of apricot and peach combined with notes of leather, olive, and a floral and hay background.

Spikenard is an aromatic herb from India. Due to the strength and intensity of Spikenard, its essence in a perfume highlights the character of the other floral notes present.

What Makes Prado's Exhibition Unique?

According to a report by art market website Artnet, Vergara said that Prado’s exhibition is unique because it positions the sensory elements in a way that evokes the allegorical potency of painting.

“All that I was really trying to do was call attention to the sense of joy that these works produce in me, hoping that others will see—and smell—this as well,” Vergara said.

In the video released by Prado, Vergara said that when people come to see the exhibition, they are going to be opening a window, a door, onto a different culture. He added that this is something of a learning process, which is one of the most enjoyable things in life.