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

20. Studio of Jacob de Backer: The Allegory of Touch. Budapest, private collection Given that there are three painted versions of the Sense of Touch, we can presume that each of them was part of a complete series depicting the five senses. In fact, it is possible that there were numerous series following the Backer composition. According to Czobor - who knew of only the Budapest paintings - Backer made the paintings first, and later the etchings.

24 Bodart, as we have seen, thought that given the close compositional similarities, the Sense of Touch etching was made from the painting in the Zanchi collection.

25 Leuschner, however, argued that Meyssens, who was active in the middle third of the seventeenth century, may have been not only the publisher but also the creator of the etchings, and that he worked from the original Backer drawings and not the paintings. In his opinion the differences between the drawing in Leiden and the Sense of Smell etching show that Meyssens simplified and modernised the Backer drawings.

26 With the discovery of the Sense of Smell from the Budapest series, we have the opportunity to compare the only known sketch (fig. 22) and its composition to its painted 24 Czobor did not notice that the etchings were not made during Backer's lifetime. Her study does not mention the publisher's stamp bearing the name Meyssens on the back of the Hearing print. 25 D. Bodart's expertise, written in 1985, published on the internet. 26 Leuschner, loc.cit. (n. 13) pp. 169-170.