transverberation

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Ecstasy of St. Teresa with St. Michael the Archangel, artist unknown, late 1600s to early 1700s, oil on canvas, 44⅞ × 62 in, rare painting, the English word coming from the Latin verb transverberāre, "to strike or pierce through", Avila's mystical experience of a divine piercing 1515-1582 (and Cupid's balancing act)

The scroll emerging from her mouth reads: “Misericordias Domini in eternum cantabo” or “I will sing the mercies of the Lord forever,” and comes from the second line of Psalm 88. It is found on the only portrait from life of Teresa by Sevillian Friar Juan de la Miseria and circulated widely in a later print by Hieronymus Wierix.
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Known provenance: Ramon Osuna (Pyramid Galleries), Washington, DC; purchased by Michael R. and Yvonne Shapiro, Beverly Hills, CA, 1979; gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 1980, No. 1980.173

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