What did the Amsterdam canal smell like in 1670, when Jan van der Heyden was painting it in View of the Oudezijds Voorburgwal with the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam? In 1717, what aromas were floating around in Willem van Mieris’s A Grocer’s Shop? And how well did the incense and herbs camouflage the odor of the corpse in the 1617 painting Anatomy lesson of Dr. W. van der Meer, by Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt? Smell-historical research allows this exhibition, through scent, to bring 17th- and 18th-century paintings to fragrant life. —E.C.