The essence of a painting, what does art smell like?

Visiting El Prado Museum is a journey across history through the eyes of some of the most important artists: Goya, El Greco, Rubens, Brueghel, the list is endless. All of them have shown us what life was like centuries ago, style, food, architecture and, of course, society.


From 4 April we will also be able to smell art in the temporary exhibition "The essence of a painting. An olfactory exhibition". A dialogue between art and the senses.

The exhibition is a new approach to painting through the sense of smell. To this end, Gregorio Sola, Senior Perfumer at Puig, and Member of the Academia del Perfume at the Sandalwood seat, has created 10 perfumes representing elements from the painting The Sense of Smell.


The artwork is part of Jan Brueghel's series The Five Senses, that featured the unmistakable signature of Rubens in the allegorical figures.

This work evokes the garden of unique trees and plants Elisabeth Clara Eugenie had in Brussels in the early 17th century. The painting depicts more than 80 species of plants and flowers, some animals related to the sense of smell, such as the hound dog and the civet, and various objects from the world of perfume, such as perfumed gloves, containers with fragrant substances, an air freshener heating in a brazier and stills for distilling essences.


The artistic richness from the painting can be explored for the first time through the sense of smell thanks to the 10 perfumes scents.

Allegory:

A perfume inspired by the bouquet of flowers smelled by the allegorical figure of smell, painted by Rubens. It combines rose, jasmine and carnation.

Amber Gloves:

It reproduces the scent of a glove perfumed with amber according to a formula from 1696. It consists of resins, balsams, woods, and flower essences, accompanied by the chord of fine leather. The nobility used to perfume gloves to mask the smell of leather tanning.

**Fig tree: **

The fragrance interprets the vegetal, humid, green, and refreshing smell of the shade of a fig tree on a summer's day. In the context of the court of Brussels, evoked in Brueghel's work, it is a valuable tree outside its natural habitat, as it usually grows on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Orange blossom:

The essence of neroli is extracted from the blossoms of the bitter orange tree by steam distillation, like the version that can be smelled in the exhibition. The stills on the left-hand side of the painting were used to distil this type of product.
In northern Europe, where Brueghel worked, citrus fruits were highly valued trees grown in greenhouses.


**Jasmine: *

Its fragrance is delicate and intense, with green and creamy facets and a slight animal note. Jasmine smells different in the morning than it does in the evening when it is more opulent. Like other plants in the picture, it comes from warmer places.



*Rose: *

It is the most recognizable of all flowers, the queen and undoubtedly the most used in perfumery, as far back as the 1st century. Its fragrance is fresh, floral, velvety, and intense, with green facets and a slight fruity touch, combined with spicy notes and a subtle touch of honey. It takes six million flowers, hand-picked at dawn, to make one kilo of its essence. Jan Brueghel painted eight varieties of rose, including centifolia and damascena, the most used in perfumery.



*Iris: *

It is probably the most expensive raw material in perfumery, worth more than twice as much as gold, due to its complex and time-consuming production process. Its absolute is called "iris" and is not obtained from the flower itself, as in other plants, but from the rhizomes, that need between five and seven years to mature. One of the main cultivation areas is the region of Florence, which has adopted this plant as a symbol in the Middle Age.


Narcissus:

Its fragrance is strong and heady, with hints of apricot and peach, combined with notes of leather, almost olive and a straw-like floral background. The narcissus is grown in the Aubrac region of France and in Jan Brueghel's time the essence was obtained by distillation, detailed in the painting.



Civet:

It was used in perfumery as a fixative to extend the duration of fragrances. The smell of civet is strong, animal, so perfumers masked it by mixing it with essences of flowers, woods, spices, and balsams. Today, as in the exhibition, it is produced in a synthetic version.



*Spikenard: **

The spikenard used at the time was of Indian origin and very expensive; the one used in perfumery when the painting was made came from Mexico. Today it can cost more than €10,000/kg. Because of its strength and intensity, the essence of tuberose in a perfume enhances other floral notes.