Jan Miense Molenaer

The Five Senses: Touch

voorzijde 572
detail signatuur en datering 572
achterzijde 572
ingelijst 572
voorzijde 572
voorzijde 572

Jan Miense Molenaer
The Five Senses: Touch

1637 Not on view

Jan Miense Molenaer portrayed the five senses with lots of humour. He depicted sight as two people trying to peer inside a jug by the dim light of an oil lamp. Slurring drunkards represent hearing, and smell is shown as a child’s pooey bottom. Molenaer represented taste with a beer jug and pipe, and touch as a good beating.

Molenaer mainly painted portraits and genre pieces that his sophisticated buyers would be able to identify with. But for the five senses he chose to depict the uncouth behaviour of peasant folk. Urban collectors would have found this particularly entertaining.

Technical details
voorzijde 572

Jan Miense Molenaer
The Five Senses: Touch

1637 Not on view

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Details

General information
Jan Miense Molenaer (Haarlem 1609/1610 - 1668 Haarlem)
The Five Senses: Touch
1637
painting
572
Material and technical details
oil
panel
19.6 x 24.4 cm
Inscriptions
lower right: IM°R 1637
IM°R in ligature

Provenance

M.F. Dittlinger, Helvoirt; purchased, 1893 (1.500 guilders, together with inv. nos. 573-576)