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6. Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, 1647–52
Acknowledged as an originator of the High Roman Baroque style, Gian Lorenzo Bernini created this masterpiece for a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria. The Baroque was inextricably linked to the Counter-Reformation through which the Catholic Church tried to stem the tide of Protestantism surging across 17th-century Europe. Artworks like Bernini’s was part of the program to reaffirm Papal dogma, well served here by Bernini’s genius for imbuing religious scenes with dramatic narratives. Ecstasy is a case in point: Its subject—Saint Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic who wrote of her encounter with an angel—is depicted just as the angel is about to plunge an arrow into her heart. Ecstasy’s erotic overtones are unmistakable, most obviously in the nun’s orgasmic expression and the writhing fabric wrapping both figures. An architect as all as an artist, Bernini also designed the setting of the Chapel in marble, stucco and paint.

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