Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

Interesting facts

Teresa of Ávila had been made a saint only in 1622, thirty years before the chapel was finished, as the first saint of the Discalced Carmelites.

The chapel cost Cardinal Cornaro a princely 12,000 scudi, and his transept previously held a painting of Saint Paul in ecstasy.

The Cornaro onlookers in the side boxes are all men of the family, including the cardinal himself and the Venetian Doge Giovanni I Cornaro.

The Victorian critic Anna Jameson found the group so improper that she wrote approvingly of the idea of destroying it.

Dan Brown's Angels & Demons makes the sculpture an Altar of Science, wrongly claiming it was moved from the Vatican and shocked Pope Urban VIII.

The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan built part of his Seminar XX around the statue, and some editions of the book carry it on the cover.

Banksy reworked the image of Teresa, removing the angel and placing a fast-food meal beside her.

The Czech rock band The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa named itself after the sculpture, and Peter Hammill's song The Lie is about it.

The painted vault above shows the Holy Spirit as a dove, its descending light continuing down into the gilded rays behind the marble group.

The terracotta model in the Hermitage is only about 47 cm high and dates from 1644–1647, years before the marble was completed.

Why it is worth it

Bernini did not simply carve a statue for the Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria; he staged a scene. Above the altar, Teresa of Ávila sinks back on a bank of marble cloud, eyes half closed and mouth open, while a smiling angel lifts a golden-tipped arrow over her. The episode comes from the saint's own account of a vision in which her heart was pierced and she was left burning with the love of God. Bernini supplied much that she never described, above all the pose of her body, and the ambiguity of that physical abandon has divided viewers ever since.

The work was paid for by the Venetian cardinal Federico Cornaro, who wanted a burial chapel in this then modest Carmelite church, and it was finished in 1652, at a time when Bernini had lost the papal favour he enjoyed under Urban VIII. Look up and to the sides to see the full design: daylight falls on the group from a hidden window above and runs down gilded stucco rays; the vault is painted as an open sky with cherubs; and on both side walls members of the Cornaro family, carved in high relief, lean out of what look like theatre boxes, talking among themselves about what is happening at the altar.

That contrast is the point of the chapel. The coloured marble frame and the spectators belong to the visitor's world, while Teresa and the angel, in white stone and lit from above, float in a zone of their own. A small terracotta study for the group, still bearing marks of the sculptor's fingers, is now in the Hermitage.

Getting there

The church stands on Via XX Settembre in central Rome, about 1.7 km from the Esquilino district. The nearest metro stations are Repubblica and Barberini on Line A, both a short walk away, and Termini station is within walking distance. The closest airport is Rome Ciampino (CIA), about 14.5 km away.

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa is a sculptural altarpiece group in white marble set in an elevated aedicule in the Cornaro Chapel of the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. It was designed and carved by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the leading sculptor of his day, who also designed the setting of the chapel in marble, stucco and paint. The commission was completed in 1652.

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Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia