The Five Senses: Seeing (Visus)
Etienne Delaune French
Closely related to Georg Pencz German
Not on view
Etching, part of a series of five oval prints with depictions of the five senses, represented by standing women with attributes, surrounded by landscapes. In the print, Seeing (visus) is represented by a bare-chested woman, standing in three-quarter view, and pointing with her right index finger towards the sky, filled with stars, the moon and the sun. At her feet stands a lynx, her attribute. This representation of a purely spiritual woman, looking towards the sky, opposes the sensual figure of Hearing in this same group, and is closely related to a representation of Wisdom printed by Delaune in 1569. It is also closely related to a representation of Georg Pencz, also portraying Seeing as a standing woman pointing to the star-studded sky, her lynx by her side, with the inscription "Lynx Visu."
