- LONDON (UK)
Exhibition: Japan: Courts and Culture
The Royal Collection holds some of the most significant examples of Japanese art and design in the western world. For the first time, highlights from this outstanding collection are brought together to tell the story of 300 years of diplomatic, artistic and cultural exchange between the British and Japanese royal and imperial families. The exhibition includes rare pieces of porcelain and lacquer, samurai armour, embroidered screens and diplomatic gifts from the reigns of James I to Her Majesty The Queen. Together, they offer a unique insight into the worlds of ritual, honour and artistry linking the courts and cultures of Britain and Japan. Royal Collection Trust (Queen’s Gallery).
- MADRID (SPAIN-EU)
Exhibition: The Sense of Smell, 1617 – 1618-Oil on panel.
This set of paintings on the five senses (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch) was one of the most successful collaborations of Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel “the Elder”. Rubens placed his figures in the magnificent courtly scenes created by Brueghel as settings for these allegories of the senses, resulting in a series of enormous quality and esthetic appeal. The subject was widely employed in Flemish painting. The figures of Venus and Cupid stand out in a paradisiacal orchard with a variety of flowers, including lilies, roses, hollyhocks and tulips. This garden is a testimony to the Flemish love of flowers, a passion shared with Isabel Clara Eugenia, who ordered the planting of an enormous number of flowers and fruit trees evocative of her homeland. Their fragrance triumphs over the disagreeable smell of the civet cat curled up next to Venus. Not even the fine nose of the dog notices its presence. It is signed on the lower edge, at the right. Museo del Prado.
