Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, completed in 1652 in the Cornaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, is a High Roman Baroque masterpiece that unites sculpture, architecture, painting, and light into a single theatrical vision. Centered on Saint Teresa of Ávila’s account of an angel piercing her heart with a golden spear, the white marble group heightens the emotional and sensual intensity of her mystical experience. Concealed daylight, gilded rays, frescoes, and life-size Cornaro family spectators turn the chapel into an immersive encounter between earthly viewers and a heavenly event, securing the work’s lasting influence and debate.

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