Apotheosis of Saint Teresa of Ávila

In 1754 Empress Maria Theresa approved a new church for Požega, a town in Slavonia, in today's Croatia, and offered money towards it. Its builder, Franjo Thauszy, bishop of Zagreb, dedicated it to Teresa of Ávila, the empress's name saint. He also gave the high altar, with its painting by the Viennese artist Caspar Franz Sambach.

This canvas, under half a metre tall, is Sambach's sketch for that altarpiece. The saint, in the brown habit and white mantle of a Carmelite nun, rises on a bank of cloud as putti lift her. Heaven opens above, with a white dove in the burst of light. At the bottom you can still see the room she has left, a bare chair and books on a desk.

Thauszy consecrated the church on 24 July 1763. Since 1997 it has been the cathedral of the new diocese of Požega.