St Teresa of Avila interceding for Bernardino de Mendoza

Schelte a Bolswert (1586–1659) was a leading Dutch engraver, noted for his works after the great Flemish artists of the first half of the 17th century, Peter Paul Rubens (as here) Van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens.

This engraving is a reproduction of a large, very Catholic and baroque altarpiece painted by Rubens in his late career (c. 1630-33), for the Church of the Discalced Carmelites in Antwerp, and now in the Koninklijk Museum for Shone Kunst, Antwerp. The inscription relates the scene to the story of Bernardino de Mendoza, a young Spaniard who had given St Teresa of Avila land on which to build a convent. Bernardino died before it could be built. Christ appeared to St Theresa, who kneels at right, informing her that his soul could not be released from Purgatory and its pool of fire until the convent was completed. Bernardino appears in Purgatory at the bottom left of the painting/print and is being pulled free by an angel. There is a workshop reproduction of the painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

See: 

British Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3161572&partId=1&searchText=bo lswert+rubens&page=2

The Met,  https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437542

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   October 2018