Classen, a leading authority on the cultural history of the senses, has produced a fascinating study of sensual and emotional responses to artefacts from the middle ages to the present. The book concludes with a discussion of how contemporary museums are stimulating the senses through interactive and multimedia displays. Topics range from the tactile power of relics to the sensuous allure of cabinets of curiosities, and from the feel of a Rembrandt to the scent of Monet's garden. In The Museum of the Senses Constance Classen offers a new way of approaching the history of art through the senses, revealing how people used to handle, smell and even taste collection pieces. The same is true of histories of art, in which artworks are often presented as purely visual objects. Traditionally sight has been the only sense with a ticket to enter the museum.
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