Saint Teresa of Ávila's Vision of the Holy Spirit (Cambridge) explained

Saint Teresa of Ávila's Vision of the Holy Spirit is an oil on panel painting of Teresa of Avila by Peter Paul Rubens, executed c. 1614, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, to which it was allocated by the UK Government in 1999 after being accepted in lieu of inheritance tax.[1] It is one of three versions Rubens produced of the subject, the others are in Rotterdam and a private collection.[2]

The Cambridge work is portrayed in the background of David Teniers the Younger's studio in his Studio of a Painter around 1650 and Pierre van Schuppen produced a print after it around the same time[3] It was later owned by the Prince de Ligne, from whose collection it was sold in Paris in 1843. It appeared in two other auctions in the 19th century, but its whereabouts were unknown as of 1973[4]

References

  1. Web site: ArtUK entry.
  2. Web site: Auction 1141, Paintings and Drawings 15th - 19th C., 16.11.2019 - Lot 1048 - Peter Paul Rubens - Saint Theresa of Avila.
  3. Web site: St Teresa of Avila's Vision of the Dove ... after Peter Paul Rubens (1873,0510.3581). British Museum.
  4. Web site: Hans Vlieghe, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard - Part VIII - Saints II (Brussels: Arcade Press, 1973), page 163-164.