Prado Museum Launches Multisensory Exhibition of Bruegel and Rubens' 'The Sense of Smell'

The Museo del Prado in Madrid has opened 'La esencia de un cuadro. Una exposición olfativa', a small exhibition that allows visitors to smell fragrances inspired by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens' painting 'The Sense of Smell' (1617-18). Curated by Alejandro Vergara, the museum's chief curator of Flemish and Northern Schools painting, and Gregorio Sola, a perfumer and member of the Spanish Perfume Academy, the show highlights the painting's depiction of over eighty plant species and objects related to perfumery. The painting belongs to the 'Five Senses' series commissioned by Isabella Clara Eugenia and her husband Albert of Austria. Using technology from Samsung and AirParfum (created by Puig), four touchscreen monitors display the painting with ten selectable fragrances, released via diffusers without damaging the artwork. The exhibition runs until July 3, 2022, in Room 83 of the Prado.