Viaticum of Saint Teresa
1870. Oil on canvas.Not on display
It was included in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of 1876 (No. 316), in whose catalogue it was described with an extract from the Life of the Saint by Father Rivera: ‘When they brought him in and she saw the Lord whom she loved so much entering through the door of the cell, having been so fallen and with a deadly grief that she could not move, she got up in bed, without anyone´s help, as if she wanted to get out of it, and it was necessary to hold her. Her face became very beautiful and luminous, and very different from her former face, and much more venerable. It did not look as old as she was, but much younger. And, with her hands full of great spirit and joy, that white swan began to sing at the end of her life with greater sweetness than she had ever sung in all her life, and speaking with all her good that she had before her, she said lofty, loving and sweet things that made all of them very devout. She said these words, among others: Con Contritum et humiliatum, Deus non dispitres.’
In the background the Ecce Homo by Titian (P00437) stands out
