Ecstasy of Saint Teresa of Avila

The painting , permeated by a typically Baroque dramatism, is inspired by a famous passage from the autobiography of Teresa of Avila, where the saint describes one of her many mystical experiences: during an ecstasy, an angel supposedly pierced her heart with a blazing dart, leaving her literally "inflamed" with a great love for God. In the painting, Teresa, with her lifeless body abandoned on the ground, her half-closed eyes turned to heaven, is about to be transfixed by the arrow held by the angel, while in the above glory the Trinity is watching the episode.