Artifacts for the Representation of the Vera Effigies. The Portrait of Teresa de Ávila in San José de Batuecas

The inscription on the portrait preserved in the desert of San José de las Batuecas (La Alberca, Salamanca) identifies Saint Teresa of Avila at the age of 61. It is a late representation that resembles the vera effigies painted in Seville in 1576 by Jan Narduck, an example of how the prototype spread, mixed with new engraved themes in the 17th century. The peculiar combination of historical and biographical attributes on this panel -inscribed names and figures, physiognomic features, landscape - enables to identify the anachronism as part of the artistic mechanisms or artifices employed in the manufacture of historical and devotional images. They were created to make people believe in the reality they depict, and in the legitimation of the worship that they promote.