The Five Senses (pair of paintings) meal; a lutenist is playing and children singing, epitomising hearing, while one young woman strokes a mink in her arms, representing touch, and another is about to eat oysters, representing taste. Details such as the clavichord and other musical instruments on the left relate to hearing, and a monkey is pulling the hair of a Cupid, a form of touch. The room and the hall visible in the right rear display pictures which are also related to the three senses: "The Annunciation" and "Minerva's Visit to Parnassus" (hearing), "The Dentist" (touch), and "The Punishment of Rich Epulon" and "The Wedding
A Natural History of the Senses past, connect us in ways that most of our cherished ideas never could.” A Natural History of the Senses A Natural History of the Senses is a 1990 non-fiction book by American author, poet, and naturalist Diane Ackerman. In this book, Ackerman examines both the science of how the different senses work, and the varied means by which different cultures have sought to stimulate the senses. The book was the inspiration for the five-part "Nova" miniseries "Mystery of the Senses" (1995) in which Ackerman appeared as the presenter. “What is most amazing is not how our senses span distance or