The Ecstasy Of St. Theresa

While St. Peter's colonnade designed by Gianlorenzo Bernini displayed Classical designs on the large scale, the basilica contains an altarpiece by Bernini symbolic of The Baroque period. Bernini's The Ecstasy of St. Theresa portrays key characteristic of The Baroque style: mainly, theatrically and paradoxical/complex sentiment. Aesthetically, the altarpiece catches the eye with its life-size scale and strategic lighting. The detail etched into the marble of each figure draws the viewer in to the experience of St. Theresa, even as consciousness reminds the audience of the stage before them. Once reminded however, the viewer does not lose any truth of st. Theresa's ecstatic suffering. To further the feeling of a play frozen in motion for people to view and study, St. Theresa's is watched y marble witnesses in opera boxes above the drama.

Though joy and pain are two mainstays of the human experience, and therefore seemingly contradiction to The Baroque movement's emphasis on originality and invention, Bernini illuminates St. Theresa's
That is why I think Bernini chose joy and pain to mold into his sculpture: what human being has not experience each? In many instances, humans experience pain and joy simultaneously. What two emotions/experiences are more central to our existence than joy and pain? We come into this world giving pain to one and joy, hopefully, to many. From our first steps we watch our parent's faces fill with joy at our accomplishments and feel the pain of previous falls. Everyday we wake up with the joy of living and the pain of fear, greed, hunger, etc....Though we are taught before we say our first words how to categorize and prioritize our feelings and experiences, Bernini show us in his sculpture that joy and pain reach beyond our learned orders to meld into our very