I need my senses to think noted the philosopher Ludwig Feurbach in 1841. Perhaps, too, it is the desire of many artists to exercise one’s senses like a muscle in order to strengthen sensitivity. One associates picture making primarily with training the eye but developing other faculties as well can add an unexpected richness to one’s visual vocabulary.
The art of smell has until recently been relegated to an exclusive niche arena of a luxury good or worse a mask to cover up unpleasant odours. Artists, writers and musicians have long known that our sense of smell (the neglected sense) stimulates our memory and enhances our emotional and artistic response. Historically Proust and Zola are noted writers but many painters too made references to smells in still life and landscape such as Jean Honore Fragonard and Claude Monet. Titian too in his Sacred and Profane Love painting at the Villa Borghese in Rome contrasts the fresh smell of myrtle and rose with the burning smoke of a censer.
I need my senses to think noted the philosopher Ludwig Feurbach in 1841. Perhaps, too, it is the desire of many artists to exercise one’s senses like a muscle in order to strengthen sensitivity. One associates picture making primarily with training the eye but developing other faculties as well can add an unexpected richness to one’s visual vocabulary.Recently in the past two decades, there has been a burgeoning of contemporary interest in one’s nose. Architects, preservationists, musicians, psychologists, anthropologists, installation artists and museums are throwing themselves into the olfactory field with a gusto that reeks (excuse me) of a new movement.
My latest project is to learn as much as I can about one’s sense of smell. And I am going about the process by the act of drawing. Using my trusty pen, I am drawing portraits of the great contemporary ‘scent’ experts to familiarise myself with their thoughts and contributions. I am drawing in museums, exhibits,laboratories, workshops, concert halls and gardens.
The art of perfume is ancient. The first documented depiction “The Making of Lily Perfume’ is on a 2500 BC Egyptian limestone tomb fragment in the Louvre Museum. Rome is a perfect place to study scent as there is a rich collection of Etruscan and Egyptian archeological remnants. The pragmatic romans themselves placed lesser importance on the power of scent. Religious rites maintained incense as a staple however and the tradition continues to this day in ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church.
Modern day perfumery too began with the Florentine Catherine de Medici who imported the recipes of her scented gloves to France. Cologne too is an Italian invention albeit made first in Germany.
Rome’s gardens, markets, kitchens and pine trees are redolent with aromas. Aromas that penetrate our limbic brain where long term memories and adrenaline flow are supported. Certainly a summer in Rome will remain in one’s emotional and creative centre for a life time.
Frances Middendorf, Drawing Instructor
The show The Art of Scent was held at The Barn in North Stamford, Connecticut and consisted of sixteen drawings, etchings and posters that reflected her passion for perfume. Inspired by a family member who experienced memory loss. Discovering the connections scent has to memory, Middendorf found herself heading for Paris and Rives de la Beauté (Beauty week), where she met some of the biggest names and artisans in the perfume world.
A full write up of the show can be found in the Connecticut Post by following the link below:
You can find out more about Frances and her work below: