Smell/L'Odorat/Geruch
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Adoration of the Magi, Book of Hours, Use of Toul (46r), 1450-1499 (Toul, France), Ink, pigment, and gold leaf on vellum, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries
Among the gifts given by the three Magi to the Christ Child at the Nativity, two are specifically associated with the smell: frankincense and myrrh. Both are aromatic resins from trees native primarily in the Middle East and in the Horn of Africa. These resins maintained high values as incense, perfumes, and oils from antiquity through the early modern period. This can be attested through the writings of the Roman author Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, which was copied and read by monks, scholars, and nobles alike.¹ Medieval and Renaissance Christians would have personally experienced their smells in churches where one or both frankincense and myrrh would be used as incense. The olfactory connection would therefore be especially poignant during the celebration of Christmas Mass, directly recalling the gifts of the Magi.
M.R.P.
¹Pliny the Elder, Natural History, ed. John Bostock (London: Taylor and Francis, 1855), book 12, chapter 35; Sarah Blake McHam, Pliny and the Artistic Culture of the Italian Renaissance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013).
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Flowers in a Glass Vase, Rachel Ruysch (Dutch, 1664-1750), 1704, oil on canvas, 1995.67, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, Joseph M. de Grimme Memorial Fund, New Endowment Fund, Henry Ford II Fund, Ralph McElvenny Memorial Fund, Walter and Josephine Ford II Fund, Benson and Edith Ford Fund, Walter B. Ford Memorial Fund, Lenora and Alfred Glancy Foundation Fund, Josephine and Ernest Kanzler Fund, J. Lawrence Buell, Jr. Fund, European Painting General Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Sachs II, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. Hudson, Jr. Fund, William H. Murphy Fund, Octavia W. Bates Fund, Director's Discretionary Fund, Popular Subscription Fund and funds from Edgar Martimer, Warren J. Coville, George Strombos, Founders Junior Council, Helmut Stern Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Alan E. Schwartz, Mr. and Mrs. Warren Shelden, Geraldine Schafer, Allan D. Gilmour, Faustyn Tate, Friends of Art and Flowers, Alice Kales Hartwick Foundation, Beverly Prentis Wagner, Women's Committee, Mr. and Mrs. Gaylord Gillis, Jr., Byron and Dorothy Gerson, Mort Harris, Mandel Berman, Marvin and Betty Danto, Lynn and Stanley Day, Margaret H. Demant, Mr. and Mrs. Todd Wyett, J. Michael Losh, Volunteer Committee, Mrs. Lester Morris, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Bianco, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. George Keyes, Bonita and John Fike, Amanda Van Dusen, Museum Shops Volunteer Committee, Ruth Rattner, Dorothy Cartwright, Mr. and Mrs. William S. Fay, anonymous donors, Maryanne Gibson, Helen Gamburd, Wendy Evans, Jerry Earles Florist, Inc., Fifi A. and George J. Kushner, Jr., in memory of Mary Dowd Schmidt; gifts from Mr. and Mrs. James E. Scripps, Ralph Harman Booth, Edward Chandler Walker, Mrs. Laura B. Higbie, Edward F. Fisher, Anna Scripps Whitcomb, Alfred J. Fisher, Mr. and Mrs. George Munroe Endicott, Mr. and Mrs. Sol Eisenberg, Colonel Frank J. Hecker, Peter Monaghan, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence P. Fisher, Mrs. William E. Scripps, William H. Thomson, Mortimer Brandt, Claire MacDonald Church, Lydia Kahn Winston Malbin, Mrs. Russell A. Alger, Gustave Volterra, Mr. and Mrs. A.D. Wilkinson, John S. Newberry, Mr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb, Mr. and Mrs. James S. Whitcomb, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Field, Estate of Mrs. Alice G. Otis, Mrs. Henry Patten and Marc T. Patten, and City of Detroit, by exchange, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit
From the darkness, a cacophony of flowers bursts forth filling the dark air with their perfume. Rachel Ruysch, whose flower painting attracted the patronage of royalty, was the daughter of an eminent scientist. Her family background may account for the vivid and intoxicating detail of her flowery subjects. A few flowers in this effervescent bouquet, like the bold coral-and-white striped tulip unfurling at the top of the composition, are past their prime and are probably beginning to exude that sickly-sweet smell. The withering blossoms and sickly yellow-hued leaves are pungent indicators that the whole bouquet is beginning to succumb to the inevitable demise of decay.
J.S.