St. Teresa of Avila,* the 16th century mystic, never liked the picture that was painted of her at 60 by the pious but uninspired Fray Juan de la Miserias. "God forgive you, Fray Juan," she told him, "for having painted me so very ugly and stiff." But for more than three centuries Fray Juan's painting was the only likeness of St. Teresa the world had ever seen.
In Madrid last week, another one turned up that must have pleased St. Teresa more. A 14-by-10-in. oil painting, it shows her as a handsome, sensitive-featured woman in her early forties.
For 309 years, the painting...
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