Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa Analysis

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was first and foremost an Italian sculptor, as well as, a painter during the High Renaissance. His piece entitled Pietà was created between the years of 1498–1499 in St. Peter’s Basilica (Kleiner). Gian Lorenzo Bernini was also an Italian sculptor and architect, but during the Baroque period. The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa was finished in 1652 for the Cornaro family chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria (Kleiner). Though there is complexity in the Baroque moment of Gian Bernini’s Ectasy of Saint Theresa, the Neoplatonist and humanist influences on Michelangelo’s Pietà are standard of the High Renaissance. In Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, Bernini’s depicts not only a Baroque moment and emotion, but also …show more content…
There is a certain intimacy that the viewer feels. There is an Ancient Greek influence seen in both works. The way Bernini drapes the figures is similar to the way Michelangelo does in Pietà. However, Michelangelo depicts the Virgin as rather calm in the aftermath of Jesus’s sacrifice, but Bernini depicts a Baroque moment in which we see the climax of action before the angel pierces St. Theresa with the flaming arrow (Session 8, Module 8).
Pietà consists of the idealized with the pyramidal composition and monumentality. Ecstasy of Saint Theresa represents the union between our world and that of the spiritual world as St. Theresa was canonized in 1622 and had recounted her visions of angels which is what Bernini based this off of (Harris & Zucker, “Bernini, Ecstasy of St. Theresa”). Bernini used a metaphor that related the spiritual to that of the physical (Harris & Zucker, “Bernini, Ecstasy of St. …show more content…
Michelangelo creates Pietà with Neoplatonic ideals that are meant to create an emotional response in viewers. Pietà comes from the word pity as it is meant to evoke this emotion, which we can feel through the sorrowful downward gaze of the Virgin as her son, Jesus lays lifeless on her lap (Session 2, Module 2). This sculpture shows the inmate and motherly bond or relationship between the Virgin and Jesus. It is meant to allow the viewer to contemplate the sacrifice of Christ and the loss that Mary is feeling in this piece (Harris & Zucker, “Pieta”). Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, on the other hand is meant to involve the viewer to inspire faith, create a spiritual awakening and reflect the intimate special relationship between one and the spiritual (Harris & Zucker, “Bernini, Ecstasy of St. Theresa”). It involves the viewer making them a part of the audience due to the relief sculptures on either side of the sculpture that places us among the Cornaro family patrons (Harris & Zucker, “Bernini, Ecstasy of St. Theresa”). This theatrical and dramatic depiction shows the strong emotion of St. Theresa and her spiritual