De Reuk (Odoratus) 1561

Cornelis Cort created this engraving, “De Reuk (Odoratus),” a personification of scent, sometime before his death in 1578. Here, a woman adorned with a crown of flowers arranges blooms in a vase while a dog eagerly sniffs the fragrant display. The presence of the dog draws upon a very old symbolic language linking animals to the senses. This association dates back to classical antiquity, where animals were often used to represent different aspects of human perception. We see this, for example, in ancient Roman mosaics depicting animals associated with each of the five senses. But note how the dog, in its pure, unbridled sensory experience, contrasts with the refined, almost staged arrangement of the flowers. This tension reflects the complex interplay between instinct and intellect, between the raw, immediate experience of the world and our attempts to categorize and aestheticize it. Cort subtly suggests how our senses are both a bridge to the natural world and a canvas for our cultural and personal narratives. The senses, and how we perceive and interpret them, are never static.