Die Versuchung des heiligen Thomas

For a long time nobody knew Velázquez had painted this. It hung in Orihuela, in southern Spain, and was credited to a local artist, until the 1920s, when it was recognised as an early work by Velázquez himself. The subject is a moment from the life of Thomas Aquinas. As a young man, his family shut him up to stop him joining the friars and sent a woman into his room to tempt him. He drove her out with a burning brand from the fire, and here two angels have arrived to bind a white cord of chastity around his waist while he faints into their arms. You can still see her slipping out through the doorway in the shadows behind. Velázquez was about 32, and had already left Seville for the king's court in Madrid.