[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/9976\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EMaking scents of the past by reproducing historical fragrances\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EEver since the days of the ancient Greek thinker Aristotle, it has been supposed that there is a hierarchy of the human senses. Sight comes out as the most important, then hearing, with smell, taste and touch lower down. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EBut if senses like smell get less attention in the here and the now, they get almost none when it comes to the past. When we think about cultural history \u2013 perhaps visiting a museum or looking at classical art \u2013 we tend to rely exclusively on our eyes. Yet the sense of smell, when it does come into play, can be powerfully evocative. So perhaps it is appropriate that researchers are paying much greater attention to the smells of the past.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EOld smells\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EHow about this question, for example: what did everyday life smell like 200 years ago? \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EMost historians who have considered this tend to think that, since hygiene then wasn\u2019t what it is now, the overwhelming scent of life would have been human body odour. Art historian Dr \u00c9rika Wicky had never questioned this assumption until she was looking through newspapers from the time and started noticing adverts for odour-free varnishes. That reminded her that varnishes of the time were usually extremely potent, smelly chemicals. It got her wondering what the smells of an artist\u2019s studio would have been like.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EAt the time, Wicky was based at the Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes Historical Research Laboratory in Lyon, France. One day, she heard about a colour-mixing cabinet that belonged to \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fleury_Fran%C3%A7ois_Richard\u0022\u003Ethe French painter Fleury Richard\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E, who worked from around the turn of the 19\u003Csup\u003Eth\u003C\/sup\u003E century.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EPaint cabinet\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThe \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2571-9408\/5\/2\/66\/htm\u0022\u003Ecabinet had been preserved in great condition\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E in the bowels of Lyon\u2019s Museum of Fine Art. It was stocked with more than 100 pigments and other artists\u2019 materials, each wrapped in paper, with notes affixed in the painter\u2019s own hand saying what each one was. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u2018It is a beautiful object, but a dangerous one,\u2019 said Dr Wicky. \u2018Some of the pigments contain 60% arsenic.\u2019 But she realised this cabinet would be a great source to explore how a painter\u2019s studio would have smelled.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EAnd so she began a project called \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/845788\u0022\u003EPaintOdor\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E,\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E aiming to work out what the dominant smells in a painter\u2019s studio would have been. Using the evidence of the cabinet and written materials from the time, and the knowledge of other experts, Dr Wicky has shown that there are four key smells that would have hung in the air of a painter\u2019s studio at the time. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003EIt is a beautiful object, but a dangerous one. Some of the pigments contain 60% arsenic.\r\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr \u00c9rika Wicky, PaintOdor\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThese are linseed oil and turpentine, which were used for mixing oil paints; a glue from rabbit skin, which was used painted on canvases to make them more rigid; and varnish, which was applied to the finished painting to protect it. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EParfumiers\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EDr Wicky has been collaborating with parfumiers at the \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.givaudan.com\/\u0022\u003ESwiss flavour and fragrance company Givaudan\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E to recreate the smells of these materials (some of the real chemicals, such as turpentine, are too toxic to use). The plan is to use these at an exhibition of Richard\u2019s paintings at the Lyon museum next year. The plan is to give visitors a leaflet to guide them through an exhibit from which they will be able to peel off stickers to sniff the odours of the artists\u2019 materials.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EDr Wicky is now finishing off a book about her project. And she is hoping to continue studying the role of smell in classical painting. She points out that smell was also a way for painters to acquire knowledge. They would often check the composition of pigments, which were very expensive, by burning small amounts of them and sniffing them \u2013 to check the merchants were not trying to cheat them.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EA second piece of research could broaden the scope of our knowledge of historical smells much further. Worth \u20ac2.8 million, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/101004469\u0022\u003EODEUROPA \u003C\/a\u003Eis an EU-funded project aiming to develop ways of capturing Europe\u2019s historical olfactory culture and explore how institutions such as museums can use smell to increase the impact of their collections. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u2018This is the very first European research project to develop state of the art computer science methodologies to capture and document the role smell has played\u0026nbsp;\u2013 and still plays\u0026nbsp;\u2013 in our culture,\u2019 says Prof \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.vu.nl\/en\/persons\/inger-leemans\u0022\u003EInger Leemans\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E at the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in the\u0026nbsp;Netherlands.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ETo begin with, the team looked at a large number of digital records \u2013 images, paintings texts from the 17\u003Csup\u003Eth\u003C\/sup\u003E to the early 20\u003Csup\u003Eth\u003C\/sup\u003E centuries and labelled these to highlight references to smell. They then trained a machine-learning algorithm to recognise these references to smells, and then set the algorithm to work on caches of artworks and historical sources in scholarly databases. This has enabled the team to produce a semantic web of smells (called the European Olfactory Knowledge Graph), which can help researchers understand how and where smells were created, experienced and understood. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThe team have \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/odeuropa.eu\/publications\/\u0022\u003Epublished several papers detailing their methodology\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E. The hope is that this web of knowledge will enable researchers to explore how smells have evolved over time. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ESmell search\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u2018We are currently developing a search engine that can help users discover related smells, in a similar manner to how internet search engines work,\u2019 says team member Dr\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mariekevanerp.com\/\u0022\u003EMarieke van Erp\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E. Not yet publicly available, the plan is that a version will be on the web in the near future.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EAnother major part of the project involves giving cultural institutions a greater ability to communicate the importance of scents to the public. In November 2021, the team carried out \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/odeuropa.eu\/2022\/04\/odeuropa-x-museum-ulm-guided-tour-launch\/\u0022\u003Ea test tour at the Museum of Ulm in Germany\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E where visitors could see the art and smell relevant smells from the past as they went along. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003EThis is the very first European research project to develop state of the art computer science methodologies to capture and document the role smell plays in our culture.\r\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProf Inger Leemans, ODEUROPA\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EFor instance, visitors viewed a 1628 painting of a wealthy woman holding a pair of scented leather gloves. Such gloves were a popular gift and accessory at the time. And the team worked with parfumiers from the company \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iff.com\/\u0022\u003EInternational Flavours and Fragrances\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E to recreate the scent so that visitors could sniff it as they viewed the painting. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EOverall, visitors have really enjoyed the experience, says George Alexopoulos, another team member. \u2018For many, using the sense of smell in order to think about objects, stories and places seems to be interesting and it is something new and different.\u2019\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EScent of hell\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EOne interesting part of the research is that people react to smells differently. There are certain smells that certain people can\u2019t detect, for instance. And during the Ulm Museum project, the team concocted something that was supposed to represent the scent of hell, which was depicted in one painting. Some visitors found it clearly unpleasant while others deemed it to be too pleasant to fit with a concept so terrifying as hell.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThe team is hoping that, in future, other projects will be able to draw on its methods and tools to further incorporate scent into cultural institutions. And for the moment, it is continuing to develop similar smelly tours. The latest, called \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/citysniffers.odeuropa.eu\/\u0022\u003ECity Sniffers\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E, is a walking tour of Amsterdam where people can carry along a scratch-and-sniff card so they can experience relevant smells along the route.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EWatch the video\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ciframe allow=\u0022accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\u0022 allowfullscreen=\u0022\u0022 frameborder=\u00220\u0022 height=\u0022315\u0022 src=\u0022https:\/\/europa.eu\/webtools\/crs\/iframe\/?oriurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FcbiI08wGt8A\u0022 title=\u0022YouTube video player\u0022 width=\u0022560\u0022\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EResearch in this article was funded via the EU\u2019s Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). 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