Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 98. (Budapest, 2003)
TÁTRAI, JÚLIA: 'Jacob de Backer invenit' - The Allegory of Smell. A New Aquisition of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
flowers, while she raises a rose to her nose with the other. Her companion animal is a dog. In the background, we see Flora in a garden giving Juno such a miraculous flower that Juno is impregnated by its fragrance alone, 'without the assistance of her husband'. A woman playing a lyre personifies the Sense of Hearing. She is surrounded by various instruments and music scores, while a stag with antlers appears behind her. Also in the background is Mercurius playing the pipes as he tries to lull Argus, Io's guard, to sleep with his music. Among the three paintings known earlier, the Sense of Sight was exhibited as by Backer in a 1981 exhibit of works from Hungarian private collections. 6 Later, in 1993, it was purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (fig. 15). 7 Ten years later, in 2003, another work, also in a Hungarian private collection, emerged, whose composition, with some minor variations, is identical to that of the above-mentioned drawing in Leiden and, though mirrored, to that of the etching of the Sense of Smell. Since both the support and the dimensions of this painting correspond to the other known works, and moreover, the same - as yet unidentified - collector's stamp seems on the back of the Sight and Smell allegories, it seems certain that this newly discovered work, now likewise in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, belongs to the same series of the five senses (fig. 16). 8 The series of etchings bearing the inscription "Jacob de Backer invenit" were first published in 1926 by K. Bauch in his monograph on Jacob Adriaensz. Backer as early works of this pupil of Rembrandt's (fig. 17). 9 Although in the first volume of Hollstein (1949) the series was correctly attributed to the sixteenth-century Flemish painter. Jacob de Backer, S. Slive, in his book on Frans Hals, again identified it as by the later Dutch painter, Backer, from around 1630 and following earlier traditions of depiction. 10 Slive's dating was based not only on the similarities in the names, but also on the name of the publisher of the five senses, Joannes Meyssens of Antwerp, active in the seventeenth century, appears on the Sense of Hearing print. 1 1 In her study from 1972, Czobor clarifies the misunderstanding over the names, and attributes both the Budapest paintings and the etchings to the hitherto lesser-known Jacob (or Jacques) de Backer of Antwerp. One year later Justus Müller Hofstede published his comprehensive study on the life of Backer, doing justice to the master whose name fell into oblivion despite his being so extolled by Karel van Mander. 12 6 Urbach, S., in Válogatás magyar magángyűjteményekből (ed. Mravik, László - Sinkó. Katalin), exh. cat., Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest 1981, p. 68, no. 55. 7 Inv. no. 93.1. Oil, oak, 48.3x64 cm. Museum of Fine Arts Budapest. Old Masters' Gallery. Summary Catalogue Volume 2, Early Netherlandish, Dutch and Flemish Paintings (ed. Ember, I. - Urbach, S.), Budapest 2000. p. 16. 8 Inv. no. 2003.3. Oil, oak, 48.5x64 cm. The allegories of Touch and Taste (Hungarian private collection), both: oil, oak, 49x64 cm. 9 Bauch, K. .Jakob Adriaensz Backer. Ein Rembrandtschüler aus Friesland, Berlin 1926. 19. pp. 111112. 10 Slive, S., Frans Hals I, London 1970, p. 79, fig. 54. 11 The inscription reads: 'Joannes Meijssens excudit Antwerpiae'. Meyssens (1612-1670) began his career as a portraitist, and later took up engraving. In Antwerp he founded one of the largest art publishing houses. 12 Müller Hofstede, J., Jacques de Backer. Ein Vertreter der florentinisch-römischen Maniera in Antwerpen, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 35 (1973) 227-60 (henceforth abbreviated Jacques de Backer).
