Ecstasy of Saint Theresa

by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

       The "Ecstasy of Saint Theresa" is in the Camaro chapel of the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, Italy.  It is one of few important works of art not commissioned by the Pope, but by the Cardinal Frederico Camaro of  Rome.  The statue depicts a figure of the swooning Saint Theresa being stabbed with a spear by an angel of God piercing the figure with the spirit of Jesus, or so she claimed in her autobiography..  Berninis' sculpture is remarkable for the all out unmistakable passion of the swooning figure.  Such passion is seldom seen in any art work, be it painted or sculpted.  Indeed, if the subject wasn't a revered saint , one might easily arrive at  a far more earthly reason for such ecstasy.  How Bernini translated such abounding passion in a hunk of marble is almost other-worldly in itself.

Review posted by: Tigertail 

Leave a comment about Ecstasy of Saint Theresa by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini.