Ecstasy Of St. Teresa Essay

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The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, was commissioned by Cardinal Federico Cornaro of Venice in 1647. This piece can be seen in the Cornaro Chapel located inside of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, Italy. This piece was created during the Baroque Period. This period began in the early 1600’s and its main goal was to connect the audience with Catholic traditions by depicting scenes that show a personal connection with God and draw people into the artwork, therefore into the church as well since that is where a lot of this artwork could be found. The Ecstasy of St. Teresa is a multimedia piece of art made of sculpture, painting and architecture which depicts a scene of St. Teresa’s life that she described in her autobiography. St. Teresa wrote about many encounters and visions she had with the supernatural (including God and angels). The specific scene that is shown in in this piece is of the time she encountered an angel of the Lord who stabbed her in the heart repeatedly with a burning spear that left her desiring more of God. In her autobiography, she described this experience in a way that sounds as if she is having a sexual experience. This type of personal connection with God was what many Catholics wanted to show to non-Catholics during the time in which this piece was commissioned. This …show more content…

One example of how detail is used in this piece is through the faces of St. Teresa and the angel. The details of these two characters faces are so clear that the audience can identify their emotions. In this sculpture, St. Teresa’s eyes are closed and her mouth is open, indicating a kind of pain, pleasure, or a mixture between the two while the face of the angel is smiling which shows the angels pleasure in this circumstance. By allowing the audience to see these emotions, the audience is able to connect more to the characters in the

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