Religiös teater eller erotisk skulptur? : En studie av hur skulpturgruppen Heliga Teresas extas och Cornarokapellet beskrivits och använts i konsthistorisk litteratur

Sammanfattning: Religious theater or erotic sculpture? A study of how the sculpture group Ecstasy of Saint Teresaand the Cornaro chapel have been described and used in literature of art history. This study aims to investigate how the sculpture group Ecstasy of Saint Teresa and the Cornarochapel has been written about and presented in literature about art history. The method has been tostudy literature, to visit the Cornaro chapel, and to make comparisons between pictures, texts andown experiences.The questions set out to be answered was; How has the Cornaro chapel and the Ecstasy of SaintTeresa been described and interpreted in literature of art history? What kind of pictures are beingused to illustrate the chapel? What is in focus and what is withheld in the presentation of the chapel,in text and in pictures? Is it possible to see a change, in how art historians write about the Cornarochapel, over time?Reading and comparing the texts and pictures that illustrates the literature, makes visible how thebaroque period, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Teresa av Avila and the Cornaro chapel has been presented inthe chosen literature, and answered the questions.The similarities between the Cornaro chapel and a theater stage, Bernini's interest in the theaterand his devout Catholicism, as well as the Counter-reformation's use of art to reach their goal ofmaking people more devout to Catholicism, is in focus. The erotic overtones in the sculpture groupare being withheld as well as Bernini's personality. Saint Teresa's work for the Counter reformationand how her texts and spirituality affected her contemporaries are also withheld.The pictures that illustrates the chapel in the studied literature are similar to each other, and oftenshow a close-up of the sculpture group with the saint and the angel, but also an overview of thechapel. The pictures are with no exceptions taken from a viewpoint inaccessible to a visitor of thechapel. The changes seen in the literature is that art history is becoming more contextualized.The sculpture group is not a religious theater, nor an erotic sculpture, but both at the same time.