St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa (1515–1582), a great Spanish mystic was beatified in 1614 (canonised in 1622). The half-length study was probably created to mark this occasion. Rubens conveys the twin talents possessed by this outstanding proponent of the Counter-Reformation – a robust, energetically down-to-earth organiser on the one hand, a chronicler of visionary experiences on the other – by means of vivid, precisely shaped, compact moulding and “ascetic” restraint in the use of colours. The picture is only finished around the head.