Image and scent are an unequal pair, and yet they depend on each other. Sight stands for cognition and perception but also for the direct grasp of content. Olfaction, on the other hand, is vague, emotional, and sensual in the truest sense of these words. We use 12,000 to 16,000 words in our language, but we recognize or react to billions of scents. Images can help make what the nose has detected visible. At the same time, they convey and condense how the scent should be perceived.

 

By its very nature, art history has had a difficult time with scent—it’s a characteristic that cannot be easily or directly captured on wood or linen. Nevertheless, the fascination with the senses and their representation in painting has become increasingly widespread since the modern era began, as countless examples of Dutch and Flemish genre paintings demonstrate. There, the senses are featured allegorically, but flowers and plants can take on an olfactory form in our inner nose, our own olfactory memory, and thus represent what we see on another level.