Senses and Sensations

Publication in Lithuanian and English

 

We experience various emotions daily – joy, sadness, anger, love, laughter, tears, fear and anxiety. The emotions brewing within human feelings and the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) that intensify them have long captivated scholars and observant creators.

 

From December 2024 to May 2025, the Vilnius Picture Gallery of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art hosted the international exhibition “Senses and Sensations” dedicated to dedicated to the expression of sensory experiences and emotions in art. It featured works of visual and applied art from the 16th to the early 20th centuries, as well as treatises by thinkers who sought to examine, understand, and classify the passions of the soul and the sensations of the body – texts that were often used by artists themselves. Over 180 exhibits were divided into six thematic sections: “The Words of the Scholars”, “A Smile in Art”, “From Admiration to Passion”, “The Senses (Five Senses)”, “Sadness, Grief, Fear and Anger” and “Final Thoughts”.

 

This catalogue, which follows the narrative thread of the exhibition, presents the mysterious and rich world of emotions and sensations in art. It invites readers to interpret the artworks freely and boldly, and to feel the individual emotional and physical responses they evoke. It is hoped that this publication will once again bring historical art closer to the modern viewer by revealing the ever-curious and unchanging human nature, and the living, ever-shifting sensations and experiences of both body and soul.

 

 

Editors and text authors: Gabija Kasparavičiutė-Kaminskienė, Joana Vitkutė 

Copy editor Ieva Puluikienė

Translators: Dr Raminta Bumbulytė, Professor Dr Habil. Regina Koženiauskienė

Designer Julija Lečaitė  

Photographers: Gintarė Grigėnaitė, Tomas Kapočius, Antanas Lukšėnas

Print run 300 copies

311 pages