The Five Senses – Sensory Studies

Sensory studies arises at the conjuncture (and within) the fields of anthropology • sociology • history • archeology • geography • communications • religion • philosophy • literature • art history • museology • film • mixed media • performance • phenomenology • disability • aesthetics • architecture • urbanism • design

Sensory Studies can also be divided along sensory lines into, for example, visual culture, auditory culture (or sound studies), smell culture, taste culture and the culture of touch, not to mention the sixth sense (however it might be defined)

Picture Gallery » The Five Senses

The Five Senses

c. 1580-1590
Antoon Claeissins, Attributed to
Flemish, 1536 – 1613
oil on oak, transferred to canvas
31.4 x 36.5 cm
Purchased 1912
National Gallery of Canada (no. 363)

The five women personify the senses and are accompanied by their traditional symbols. From left to right, they are: Touch, with a falcon in her hand and a tortoise at her feet; Taste, holding an apple to her mouth and a cornucopia of fruit in her right hand with a vase of fruit at her elbow and a monkey eating an apple at her feet; Sight, looking in a mirror, with an eagle before her; Smell, sniffing lilies and holding a spray and a vase of flowers, with a dog beside her; and Hearing, playing a lute, with a stag behind her and a music book and other musical instruments on the ground. Claeissins was the official painter of the city of Bruges from 1570 to 1581.

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