Ecstasy of St. Diego of Alcalá

The Ecstasy of St. Diego of Alcalá is a painting created around 1646 by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, a prominent Spanish Baroque religious painter. This work is part of a series originally displayed in the cloister of San Francisco in Sevilla.1

Murillo's style in this period was characterized by naturalism, tenebrism (strong contrasts of light and shadow), and the use of everyday people as models, focusing on genre scenes. This approach was influenced by the Sevillian school, established by artists like Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán. Murillo's art often depicted religious subjects with an intimate and tender sentiment, blending idealized figures with familiar human archetypes.1