An olfactory exhibition at the Prado: ten fragrances created specifically for the Brueghel and Rubens painting

The Prado Museum presents until July 3, 2022, the exhibition The Essence of a Painting. An Olfactory Exhibition, curated by Alejandro Vergara, chief curator of Flemish painting at the Prado Museum, and Gregorio Sola, perfumer at Puig and member of the Academia del Perfume.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is the painting The Sense of Smell, part of the series on The Five Senses created by Jan Brueghel the Elder between 1617 and 1618 in collaboration with his friend Peter Paul Rubens: a work that evokes the garden ofInfanta Clara Eugenia and her husband Albert of Austria, rulers of the Southern Netherlands, in early 17th-century Brussels, for whom Brueghel worked as court painter. Depicted within the painting are more than eighty species of plants and flowers, various animals including the African civet, and objects related to the sense of smell and the world of perfume.

On this occasion, the museum is offering a true olfactory exhibition, as, thanks to the collaboration ofAcademia del Perfume and the AirParfum technology developed by Puig, perfumer Gregorio Sola has created ten fragrances associated with elements in the painting by Brueghel the Elder and Rubens. Visitors can then appreciate the different elements depicted in the painting not only through sight, but also through smell: for example, the fragrance Allegory invites visitors to focus on the small bouquet of flowers that the allegorical figure of smell holds in her right hand; Guanti reproduces the smell of amber-scented gloves based on a formula from 1696; Fico leads one to identify the tree in the painting; Fior d’Arancio leads the eye to the still used to obtain the plant extract. Ten fragrances in total intended to accompany the sense of sight and provide unique sensations to appreciate the work.

AirParfum technology allows up to one hundred different fragrances to be smelled without overloading the sense of smell, respecting the identity and different notes of each scent. Through the four diffusers of Samsung’s interactive touchscreens, visitors can appreciate the fragrances of the seventeenth-century elements in the painting.

The exhibition is sponsored by Samsung in special collaboration with Puig and Academia del Perfume.

For more info: museodelprado.es

Image: Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, The Sense of Smell, detail (1617-1618; oil on panel, 66.5 x 110 cm; Madrid, Museo del Prado)

An olfactory exhibition at the Prado: ten fragrances created specifically for the Brueghel and Rubens painting

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