The Five Senses (series)

The Five Senses is a set of allegorical paintings created at Antwerp in 1617-1618 by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, with Brueghel being responsible for the settings and Rubens for the figures. They are now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. They are all painted in oils on wood panel, approximately 65 by 110 centimetres (2 ft 2 in × 3 ft 7 in) in dimensions.

The series constitutes one of the best known and most successful collaborations by Brueghel and Rubens, who were close friends.^[1][2] The allegorical representation of the five senses as female figures had begun in the previous century, the earliest known examples being the Lady and the Unicorn series of tapestries, which date to around 1500,^[3] but Brueghel was the first to illustrate the theme using assemblages of works of art, musical instruments, scientific instruments and military equipment, accompanied by flowers, game and fish.^[1] His approach was widely copied in later Flemish painting.^[2]