Gian Lorenzo Bernini
The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

1647-52
Marble, height 11 feet 6 inches (350 cm.)
Cornaro Chapel
Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome

This statuary group illustrates St. Teresa's own account of a mystical experience in which an angel appeared: "in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart…"

On the right and left walls of the small chapel (see below) Bernini represents members of the Cornaro family as a sort of audience for Teresa's experience.

Read more about images of St. Teresa of Avila.

Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

 
Detail photographs of the statuary on the left and right sides of the chapel