Four Old Allegorical Prints - Nicolas Arnoult - Period: XVII - Circa: 1680

Four magnificent old prints, enhanced, authored by Nicolas Arnoult, they have all been engraved: “In Paris at Nicolas Arnoult rue de la fromagerie à l'Image St. Claude, aux halles, with Privilège du Roy. »

Nicolas Arnoult is an engraver and publisher of prints specializing in fashion engraving, allegories and portraits.
They were made with etching and a burin, then enhanced by hand.

The papers have been carefully cleaned and the frames consolidated in the rules of the art by the workshop Anaïs Peubez.

These are four allegorical historical scenes on the senses of the human being, we have here, Hearing, Touching, Goust, Veue.

They are all part of the inventory of the collection of prints relating to the history of France bequeathed in 1863 to the National Library by Mr. Michel Hennin then written by Georges Duplessis in Paris in 1882.

Period: 17th century
Circa: 1690
Dimensions: Height: 34.5cm x Width: 24cm

In the 17th century, series of images built around the theme of the five senses were particularly popular.

They are used as well to decorate ceilings as to inspire engravings and paintings.

Their composition can appeal to completely codified allegories.

There is an animal code: the deer is the hearing, the eagle or the cat the sight, the dog is the smell, the monkey personifies the taste, the turtle the touch.

Objects can play the same role as is the case here for our prints: the mirror, the magnifying glass, for the sight, the flowers for the smell, the musical instruments for the hearing, the fruits or the wine for taste, dice, cards or even a statuette to touch it.

The destination of these images may be primarily decorative, but often it is charged with a moral sense.

Traditionally, these motifs refer to the philosophy of Aristotle, a philosopher for whom the senses are the basis of human knowledge.