The Sense of Touch, Philippe Mercier (1747)
The artwork is split into two halves, featuring two pairs of lovers. On the left, a cat allows a little girl to pet it but suddenly scratches a young man, drawing blood. He tends to his finger, while the young woman beside him looks on in surprise. In contrast, the couple on the right has no such interruption. The young woman knows that the viewer is watching them kiss, and she recognizes that we know she is aware of our gaze. At either end of the mantelpiece are two Chinese vases, with a horizontally placed oval painting and a vertical landscape painting on the left, both depicting classic scenes.
