Pendant with the Virgin and Saint Teresa of Avila

Description The elaborate but precise decoration of this pendant is characteristic of Spanish reverse painting of the mid 1600s. In addition to the style, the dating is also suggested by the fact that the Spanish nun Teresa (1515-82) was canonized (declared a saint) in 1622, and devotion to her was most ardent in the following decades.

Provenance F. Ongania, Venice [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters