Ecstasy of Saint Teresa;

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Title	Ecstasy of Saint Teresa;
File Name	civ metadata; 99100022.jpg
Copyright Status/Owner	Public Domain; Actively Pursuing
Rights (Patron Usage Instructions)	http://www.lib.byu.edu/genericnote_copyright.html
Course	HUM 202
Lecture Number	5
Professor	Green, Jon D., 1940-
Description	Working as an architect, painter, sculptor, and draftsman Gianlorenzo Bernini was one of the most influential and ingenious artists of the Italian Baroque period. His spectacular depiction of the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa in the Cornaro Chapel (1645-1652) reveals his innovative approach. Commissioned by Cardinal Federico Cornaro, the chapel, located in the small church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, is filled with magnificent decoration that relates to the mystical experience of the Spanish Carmelite reformer and Counter-Reformation saint, Teresa of Ávila. The altarpiece contains a sculpture of Teresa’s vision, which follows her own account of the miraculous episode. In 1555, Teresa beheld visions and experienced trances, during which an angel pierced her heart and entrails repeatedly with a fire-tipped arrow of divine love. Bernini designed her sprawling form, unfocused eyes and open mouth to convey her complete absorption in this rapturous moment, which she recorded as causing her to swoon in delightful anguish. Despite the clear connotation of physical as well as spiritual passion, Teresa’s body is enveloped in layers of voluminous drapery with only her face, feet, and one hand exposed. Carved out of white marble, the sculpted figures reveal Bernini’s exceptional ability to fashion convincing textures, seen here in the differentiation between the clouds, smooth flesh, Teresa’s coarse attire, and the angel’s delicate garment and feathered wings. With its theatricality and sensory impact, this work fulfilled the goals of the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church’s campaign to re-attract defectors and strengthen faithful members. Bernini’s effort to involve the viewer through his skillful employment of Baroque techniques correlated with the ideas of Ignatius Loyola (Saint Ignatius after 1622), whose book Spiritual Exercises claimed that art could increase piety by helping spectators imagine and experience significant spiritual events. Bernini’s vigorous, original approach made a significant contribution to the International Baroque Style and impacted many contemporary as well as later artists. At the height of a religious catharsis, Bernini's "Saint Teresa in Ecstacy" not only demonstrates his virtuoso skill in capturing that amount of emotion in sculpture, but also illustrates his superior skill as an artist. Notice the fine drapery of Teresa's robe that the viewer mistakes for fabric. The tableau utilizes architecture and natural light as well to capture the ecstatic moment when an angel pierced Teresa's heart with an arrow, thus revealing the Holy Spirit to her.; Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), also known as Teresa of Jesus, was a Spanish mystic who founded the religious order of Discalced, or Barefoot, Carmelites. Educated in an Augustinian convent, she joined the Carmelite order in 1535 and lived in the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation near Ávila. In 1555, after many years of ill health and progressively severe spiritual practices, she beheld visions of Jesus Christ, angels, and demons, and experienced trances, during which an angel pierced her heart and entrails repeatedly with a fire-tipped arrow of divine love. As a result of this experience, she devoted herself to reforming the Carmelite order, which she felt had become degenerate. Despite fierce opposition from her ecclesiastical superiors, she was able to establish the first community of reformed, or Discalced, Carmelite nuns, known as the Convent of St. Joseph, at Ávila in 1562, due to papal intervention on her behalf. Life at the convent centered on stringent adherence to the initial, strict Carmelite rules and her impressive reforms caused the head of the order to grant her permission to establish equivalent religious residences for men. Notwithstanding continued hostility from powerful church officials, she contributed to the establishment of 16 reformed institutions for women and 14 for men. In 1582, just two years before her death, the Discalced Carmelites were granted the status of an autonomous monastic body by the pope. Teresa’s record of her mystical experiences and spiritual thoughts offer significant contributions to mystical and devotional literature. Published posthumously, her works include her spiritual autobiography; The Way of Perfection (after 1565), counsel to her nuns; The Interior Castle (1577), a compelling depiction of the contemplative life; and The Foundations (1573-82), a narrative recounting the origins of the Discalced Carmelites. Teresa became a saint when she was canonized in 1622 and her feast day is October 15.
Creator	Bernini, Gianlorenzo, 1598-1680
Country	Italy
Geographic Region	Europe
Type	Slide
Platform	Cross-Platform
File Size	185.285 KB
Genre	Sculpture
Category	Art
Keywords	Bernini, Gianlorenzo; Cornaro Chapel; Ecstasy of Saint Teresa; Italian Baroque Art; Counter-Reformation;
Time Period	Baroque Era
Date Range	1620 AD: 1680 AD
Date Original	1652 AD
Date Digital	2005-03-29
Metadata Entry Date	2009-08-11
Quality	High
Contributors	Brigham Young University
Edition	Electronic reproduction;
Format	JPEG
Owning Institution	Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della VIttoria, Rome
Physical Description	height of group 11' 6''
Publisher Digital	Brigham Young University
Source	Lawrence Cunningham & John Reich, Culture and values: a survey of the Western humanities, 4th ed. (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998), 361; Ann Sutherland Harris, Seventeenth-Century Art and Architecture (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005), 108-111; Fred S. Kleiner and Christin J. Mamiya, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 12th ed., vol 2 (Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2005), 696; Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 2003, “Bernini, Gianlorenzo”; Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 2003, “Teresa of Ávila, Saint”; Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006 Online ed., s.v. ""Bernini, Gian Lorenzo”, available from Internet <http://search.eb.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/eb/article-8222>, accessed 28 April 2007.
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