The ancient prints - Engravings

SANTA TERESA D'AVILA INTERCEDES FOR THE SOUL OF BERNARDINO DE MENDOZA
Etching and engraving engraving, mm. 460x346
"Pet. Paul Rubenius pinxit. S. à Bolswert sculpsit "(left bottom); "Martinus vanden Enden excud. Antverpiae Cum
privilege "(on the right).
Inscriptions: "Exstimulat CHR (IST) VS DNS S.M. TERESIAM ut open ferat animae D. BERNARDINI MENDOZY, ignibus
purgatorij detentae, quae postea ope S. TERESIAE liberata fuit. Lib. fund. S. Ter. Postal Code. 10. / Sancta ergo et salubris est
cogitatio pro Defunctis, exorare, ut a peccatis solvantur. 2. Machabeorum. Postal Code. 12 ".
The Rubens painting was executed after 1630 for the church of the Discalced Carmelites of Antwerp and placed in the transept
left where he made a pendant with the Education of the Virgin (see page 237 + 10). The two works are now in the Museum
Royal Palace of Fine Arts in Antwerp (No. 299). The engraving by Bolswert is inspired both by the painting of Antwerp and its sketch
(Lier, Museum Wuyts-van Campen-Caroly, H. Vlieghe, II, 1973, pp. 166-168, No. 155, Fig. 125-126). It allows
to clarify the exact iconography of the work, through the passage reported in the tenth chapter of the book of the foundation
of the Carmelite order. Saint Teresa obtains from Christ the liberation of the soul of Bernardino de Mendoza, priest,
diplomatic and historical Spanish. Two iconographic details are noted. In the first place, the saint does not ask for intervention
of the Madonna; in the second place, prayer to Christ concerns only one soul. Among the souls of Purgatory, the
young woman in the center is a recurring Rubensian model.