The Council of Trent (dec 13, 1545 – dec 4, 1563)
Description:
The Ecstasy of St. Teresa (Bernini, 1645-1652)The challenge of Protestantism was met by the Church through the Counter-Reformation of which the Council of Trent was the embodiment. It reaffirmed the church as the sole interpreter of scripture and the practices that had drawn the ire of the Protestants- sale of indulgences, art etc.- but prohibited their abuse. Bernini’s sculpture, undertaken as part of a major rebuilding project in the Vatican to display Church dominance and authority, presents a dichotomy between the earthly and the spiritual with the draperies of the angel and the Saint which aspire upwards to the heavens and downwards to the Earth respectively. Bernini’s sculpture is meant to inspire divine passion much like St. Teresa’s and jolt the viewer into a transcendent experience(3), in doing so he demonstrated the Church’s monopoly over evoking such powerful spiritual experiences.
3. Robert Harbison, Reflections on Baroque, (London, Reaktion, 2000), 23.
Added to timeline:
Date:
dec 13, 1545
dec 4, 1563
~ 17 years