This large-scale depiction of The Five Senses by the Dutch artist Jan van Bijlert offers an interesting perspective on the international influence of 17th century Roman painting. Having arrived in Rome not long after the death of Caravaggio, whose dramatic life and work had captured the imagination of the city, Van Bijlert – like many other foreign artists – quickly familiarised himself with Caravaggio’s innovations and sought to replicate his striking chiaroscuro effects. Having first trained under his father, the glass painter Herman van Bijlert, and then with Abraham Bloemart in Utrecht, Jan travelled to France around 1617 and then on to Italy, where he is recorded in Rome by 1621. There, he was one of the founding members of the Bentveughels, a group of Northern European painters active in Rome between 1620 and 1720. After his return to Utrecht around 1625, Van Bijlert continued to work in a Caravaggesque style, as demonstrated in the sophisticated modelling of the figures, particularly the anatomy of the semi-nude male figure to the right. The palette, with its bold, painterly accents and sharp contrasts of light and dark areas, recalls the tenebrism of Caravaggio himself.