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The Sense of Sight

The Sense of Sight

Object type Painting
Genre Allegory
Date 1617
Dimensions 64.7 x 109.5 cm
Support Panel
Medium Oil
Signature BRUEGHEL F. 1617
Collaborators Peter Paul Rubens
Our attribution Jan Brueghel the Elder
Other authorities Ertz 2008-10, #533
Ertz 1979, #327
Location Madrid, Spain
Collection Museo del Prado
Accession numbers inv. #1394
Series The Five Senses
Tags Encyclopedic, Senses, Rubens, Painting Within A Painting, Putti, Flowers, Globe, Sculpture
External resources Museo del Prado
Rooses 1879, p. 200
Van den Branden 1883, p. 456
De Maeyer 1955, pp. 43, 112, 114, 118, 154
Speth-Holterhoff 1957, p. 29, 52ff
Hairs 1965, p. 150
Díaz Padrón 1975, pp. 40-43
Ertz 1979, cat. #327, Fig. 399, pp. 82, 240, 332, 343-47, 611
Müller-Hofstede 1984
Filipczak 1987, pp. 62, 70-71
Madrid 1992, pp. 112-125
Madrid 1997, pp. 134
Vergara 1999, pp. 116-121
Welzel in Madrid 1999-2000, pp. 89-97
Ertz 2008-10, cat. #533
Merriam 2012, Fig. I
Madrid 1992, cat. #9
Madrid 1997, cat. #IV.1
(Probably) commissioned by Albert and Isabella
Düsseldorf (Probably) given to Wolfgang-Wilhelm von Zweibrucken, Count Palatine and Duke of Neuburg
1634 Austria Gift from Wolfgang-Wilhelm to the cardinal-infante Ferdinand, brother of Philip IV (Possibly 1634)
1634 Spain Gift from the cardinal-infante to the Duke of Medina de las Torres
1636 Madrid Gift from Medina de las Torres to the King; in the Alcázar
1819 Madrid Collection of the Museo Nacional del Prado
Gary Schwartz
August 10, 2014

The painting in center background on the floor, of a warrior in a red cap, is the only painting that occurs both in Jan Brueghel's evocations of the collection of the archdukes and in Guillam (aka Willem) van Haecht's recreation of the collection of Cornelis van der Geest, with the archdukes visiting. My hypothesis is that the painting was given as a gift by van der Geest to the archdukes, after he refused to sell them the Quentin Matsys Madonna they wanted. The painting of the soldier has never been identified.

E.A. Honig
July 6, 2013

This painting is part of a series of the five sense completed between 1617-1618. Please see:

Copy of whole series attributed to Jan the Younger, Ertz 1984 cat. #s 178-182; all panel, 68.5 x 112, all in American private collection.
A close copy on panel (70 x 112 cm), sold at auction by de Hirsch, June 17, 1904, #12.
A copy on panel (70 x 112 cm) attributed to Jan Brueghel and van Balen, sold Paris, April 26, 1907.
A copy attrib. JBI and HvBalen on panel (66 x 108 cm), sold Vienna, J.C. von Klinkosch, April 2, 1889, #30.
A poorly executed copy attributed to the workshop of JBII on panel (71.5 x 114.5 cm), sold London, Sotheby's, July 12, 2001, #108.
Some variants by Jan Breughel the Younger possibly inspired by this painting: One signed painting ("J Breugel" on lower left) with a nude figure of Venus on copper (58.1 x 89.7 cm), in Philadelphia, John G. Johnson Collection Philadelphia Museum of Art, inv. # 656. Another with a nude Venus sold London, Sotheby's, July 7, 2002, # 48 (panel, 57.8 x 89.5 cm). A version with a clothed figure of Venus, sold at auction in Hartford Connecticut, 1949 #8.
Moderately competent copy in chateau Hluboká (Frauenberg) in South Bohemia--panel, 73 x 114: published in Jaromír Šíp and O.J. Blažíček, Flämische Meister des 17. Jahrh., Prague 1963. Copy close to this one in collection Salomon Goldschmidt, 1898 where it formed part of series: RKD also has Taste from there, at least.

When these paintings were owned by Philip IV, they were kept in a reading room in the northern section of the Alcázar -- a relatively private chamber for thought and contemplation.