Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

A marble sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini depicts Saint Teresa of Ávila in a mystical vision. Completed around 1652 for Rome’s Cornaro Chapel, it forms the centerpiece of a theatrical chapel ensemble.

Teresa of Ávila: A Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic, and writer whose accounts of prayer and visions shaped Catholic spirituality. Bernini depicts her describing the vision in her autobiography.
Hidden window: A concealed architectural opening that admits light without appearing as a visible window. A hidden source above the group directs natural light onto the figures and gilded rays.
Federico Cornaro: A Venetian cardinal who commissioned Bernini to create the Cornaro Chapel in Rome. His patronage provided the setting and resources for the sculptural ensemble.
Angel with the arrow: The sculpted angel who holds a small arrow beside the reclining Saint Teresa. The angel’s poised gesture depicts the instrument of Teresa’s transverberation.
Mysticism: Religious experience centered on direct encounter or union with divine reality. Teresa’s vision is presented as a bodily manifestation of mystical union.
Transverberation: A mystical experience understood as the piercing of the heart by divine love. Teresa’s account of an angel piercing her heart supplies the sculpture’s central episode.
Gilded bronze: Bronze coated with a thin layer of gold to produce a reflective golden surface. Bernini’s gilded rays catch the chapel’s light and connect the figures to a heavenly source.
Santa Maria della Vittoria: A Carmelite church in Rome, known for housing Bernini’s Cornaro Chapel. The sculpture was commissioned for a chapel inside this church.
Saint Teresa’s drapery: The deeply folded marble robes covering the figure of Saint Teresa in Bernini’s sculpture. Its restless folds contrast with her still, fainting body and heighten the scene’s intensity.
Religious ecstasy: An intense spiritual state involving overwhelming emotion, altered awareness, or perceived contact with the divine. The sculpture gives physical form to a religious experience described as overwhelming.

Linked from 3 pages

Baroque sculptureBroader topic: Its suspended figures, hidden window, and gilded rays unite sculpture with theatrical staging.