Ontwerp voor een zaalstuk: standbeeld van zintuig Gevoel, daarnaast een liefdespaar 1715 - 1798

This is a design for a wall decoration, made by Dionys van Nijmegen in the 18th century using pen, brush and watercolor. Van Nijmegen lived during a period of significant social and political change, including the rise of Enlightenment ideals and growing emphasis on human reason and emotion. Here we see a classical statue representing the sense of "feeling", positioned above a loving couple. The couple embodies an intimacy which may be influenced by contemporary Enlightenment ideas of individual emotional experience. At the time, feelings were considered to be a predominantly feminine domain. Does the statue’s feminine form reinforce traditional associations between women, emotion, and passivity? Or could it be seen as an attempt to legitimize emotion as a valuable aspect of human experience, challenging the dominance of reason? Consider the ways this artwork might reflect and shape societal views on love, gender and emotion.