Allegorie van de vijf zintuigen 1788

Christian Bernhard Rode created this print called, *Allegory of the Five Senses*, sometime in the 18th century. The print shows a woman seated, gazing down upon an infant suckling at her breast. In 18th-century Europe, the Enlightenment was giving way to Romanticism. The changing times were marked by a movement towards reason, individualism, and sensory experience. Rode’s allegory embodies this shift. The print visualizes the senses through images that evoke them: the infant’s taste and touch, a boy playing the flute, a basket of flowers, and a mirror. What does it mean to connect a lactating mother to this theme? The scene invites you to consider how breastfeeding—an act of nurturance and vulnerability—fits into broader societal views on womanhood, and how women were seen as both sources of life and subjects of sensory and emotional experience.