Warning: There follows personal commentary regarding certain Roman Catholic Church doctrine that some people may find offensive. Please do not continue beyond this point if it is likely that you may be so offended.It was back in my school days when Bernini’s gorgeous sculpture, “The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa,” first captured my imagination.
“The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa” by Gianlorenzo Bernini, 1645 I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. One must bear in mind that I was a somewhat religiously-minded young chap back then, with particular leanings towards the cloistered monastic Carmelite Order of the Roman Catholic Church, of which Saint Teresa of Avila was a member in medieval Spain (not to be mistaken with Saint Therese of Lisieux, known as “The Little Flower,” a French Carmelite nun).
The story goes that Saint Teresa was praying in chapel one day when an angel appeared to her, holding an arrow. The angel thrust the arrow into Saint Teresa’s breast, which she experienced as an ecstatic, overpoweringly euphoric sensation of divine love. Bernini has graphically captured the moment of penetration in his famous sculpture.
As I got older, I began to wonder about this ecstatic penetration of St Teresa. I loved the sculpture no less, but I did begin to question the entire notion of a celibate nun being penetrated in any way whatsoever; be it by a decidedly phallic looking divine arrow or otherwise. And what’s more, being thrown into an enraptured, ecstatic state as a consequence.
Just look at the expression on her face. Is that soaring religious ecstasy you see, or more likely to be a decidedly carnal orgasm going on there? So I painted my own version:
“The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa”The angel has been morphed into a twisted, gyrating beam of light, which embraces the saint and holds her close. She appears to have lost her habit in the process. I’m not exactly sure how that happened.
My painting is rendered in oils on canvas and is 4ft x 3ft in size (120cm x 90cm).
