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Bernini's Cornaro Chapel: Visualizing Mysticism in the Age of Reformation

Ladd, Adam J.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1342488915

Abstract Details

2012, MA, Kent State University, College of the Arts / School of Art.
This thesis examines the interaction between the viewer, the depicted Cornaro men, and the scene of Teresa’s transverberation. The result is a fresh interpretation of Bernini’s Cornaro Chapel. Rarely has the theatricality of Bernini’s Cornaro Chapel gone unmentioned in literature. Scholarship thus far, however, has not gone beyond the formal, visual qualities of the chapel that suggest a theater space. I suggest that these qualities were more than just aesthetic choices—they were intended as an important aspect of the overall message being communicated to the viewer. The theme presented to the viewer of this chapel was one that carried with it a recent history of controversy and debate. The post-Tridentine Roman Church walked a fine line between acceptance and condemnation of mystical theology, as it had the potential to either confirm God’s divine interaction with the Roman Church, or to inspire protest and dissent against the rigid orthodoxy inherent in the Catholic faith. To guide the viewer toward an appropriate response to the subject matter, this thesis suggests that Bernini intentionally designed the chapel space as a play-within-a-play, a popular Baroque device that Bernini explored just years before the Cornaro commission in his play The Impresario. This creative device serves to focus the attention of the audience on the interaction that takes place between audience and performance, as the real audience sees a performed audience reacting to the play-within-a-play. In the Cornaro Chapel, the viewer witnesses a performance of Teresa’s mystical experiences to an audience of the Cornaro men, seven of whom were Cardinals of the Church. As such, we witness the creation of a canonized saint within the confines of the Church’s sanctioned system of doctrinal validation. We are reminded that such validation does not come from us, but from the upper echelons of Church hierarchy. Both the viewer’s experience and understanding of this miracle is controlled by Bernini’s structuring of the chapel space.
Gustav Medicus, PhD (Advisor)
Diane Scillia, PhD (Committee Co-Chair)
Fred Smith, PhD (Committee Member)
Carol Salus, PhD (Committee Member)
144 p.
Aesthetics; Art Criticism; Art History; Fine Arts; Gender Studies; History; Performing Arts; Religious History; Theater History; Theology
Bernini; Counter-Reformation; Teresa of Avila; Teresa de Jesus; Baroque; Baroque sculpture; play-within-a-play; theatrum mundi; Federico Cornaro

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ladd, A. J. (2012). Bernini's Cornaro Chapel: Visualizing Mysticism in the Age of Reformation [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1342488915

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ladd, Adam. Bernini's Cornaro Chapel: Visualizing Mysticism in the Age of Reformation. 2012. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1342488915.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ladd, Adam. "Bernini's Cornaro Chapel: Visualizing Mysticism in the Age of Reformation." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1342488915

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.