Smell: The Five Senses

A woman in classical drapery and a rose wreath holds bunches of flowers, lifting a single bloom to her nose. To her right, a dog is depicted in the act of sniffing a tall flowering plant, while beehives and a flower basket occupy the mid-ground. The composition uses dense cross-hatching to create a sense of volume and atmosphere in the surrounding garden landscape.

This print is part of a series on the five senses, which in the late Renaissance were studied within natural philosophy as the gates through which the soul interacts with the material world. In the Neoplatonic circles of Haarlem, such allegories often served as meditations on the 'lower' physical senses versus the 'higher' spiritual discernment required to perceive divine truths.