Touch (Tactus), from "Quinque Sensuum"

Franz Cleyn German
 Publisher Robert Walton

Not on view

Horizontal panel with the personification of Touch (Tactus) shown at center as a female figure with a bird perched on her left hand. She appears under an arch formed from thorned banches and rests her right foot on a turtle. Scrolling tendrils grow from the bottom left and right corner of the arch and are inhabited by pairs of putti. The series, consisting of a title and five plates with the senses personified by female figures, is titled 'Quinque sensuum descriptio, in eo picturae genere quod (Grottesche) vocant Itali' (Description of the Five Senses in that kind of painting that the Italians call grotesque). This set belongs to the 3rd edition, published in London by Robert Walton after 1646 (ca. 1655). An inscription on the title plate (45.101.1) credits Walton as the publisher ('SOULD BY RO: WALTON), but there are visible traces of the name and address of the publisher of previous editions.

Touch (Tactus), from "Quinque Sensuum", Franz Cleyn (German, Rostock 1582–1658 London), Engraving

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