The Artist's Studio
by PLATZER, Johann Georg, Oil on copper, 42 x 60 cm
The man at centre - an idealized portrait of the artist - shows off a Bacchanal to a connoisseur. The art on the walls are allegories of the five senses: the floral still-life represents smell; the lutenist and singer sound; and the woman feeding fruit to a parrot taste. For touch, Platzer reinterprets Aesop’s fable The Satyr and the Peasant in which the peasant blows on his hands to warm them and his soup to cool it. The Old Testament story of David spying on Bathsheba at her bath appears on the seated artist’s easel, representing sight.