The five human senses - taste, smell, sight, hearing and touch - belong to the most varied and most appealing subjects of European painting. Whereas in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the senses had rather negative connotations, being considered deceitful or as a promotion of sin, their perception changed with the increasing scientification of thought in the 17th century. The senses were initially represented symbolically or allegorically. The Dutch painting of the Golden Age gradually replaced the initially symbolical or allegorical representation of the senses with narrative genre scenes. The exhibition presents painting and printed graphics of the 17th to 19th centuries in the form of thematic groups of works. Many international loans from around 20 European museums have been supplemented with the collections of Villa Vauban.