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

22. Jacob de Backer: The Allegory of Smell. Leiden, Rijksprentenkabinet background. The Venus and Amor painting in Berlin is just such a picture; here, Aeneas and Anchises can be seen fleeing Troy. In the Minerva panel from the museum in Copenhagen the background shows Hercules Gallicus, while the painting of Venus in Ecouen portrays the story of King Midas in the background. The series of the Seven Deadly Sins, attributed to Backer, is compositionally related to these works. Here, on either side of the large-scale, allegorical figures are background scenes from the Old and the New Testament: for example, behind Anger, shown as a nude, blindfolded figure with flaming hair, brandishing a sword, we see on the left Cain and Abel and on the right the stoning of St Stephen.

31 These allegorical, often moralising, works were very popular among the period's Humanist patrons of the arts. In a series of engravings by Adriaen Collaert, based on the drawings of Marten de Vos and also depicting the five senses, large-sized allegorical female figures fill the foreground, while on each side in the background, scenes from the Bible appear on the right and left - just as in Backer's portrayal of the seven deadly sins. In the Sense of Sight, we see an Old Testament scene - the Lord showing Adam and Eve the Tree of Knowledge - on one side, and a New Testament scene - Jesus healing the blind - on the other. In this way Collaert infused his works with moral content in connection to the five senses: on the one hand, humanity's fall from grace, 31 Naples, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, inv. no. 835-841. The painting are painted on canvas, and their size is the same with minimal variations (Avaritia: 119x148 cm).