The story continues as Langdon and Vittoria discover the next clue at St. Peter's Square, a tile depicting the West wind. This emblem of the air, created by Bernini, sends the pair racing to the small basilica of Santa Maria della Vittoria.
If you want to see Baroque, then this is the church for you. Built in the early 17th century, and designed by architect Carlo Maderno, called the father of the Baroque, Santa Maria della Vittoria is an over-the-top sight to behold.
"Baroque" is a term applied to art created between the Mannerist and Rococco styles. It's characterized by emotional drama and tension, movement, vitality, and sensuous richness.
Bernini's famous sculpture, The Ecstasy of St Teresa is considered one of the finest examples of the Baroque, and art lovers flocked to see it long before Dan Brown wrote his novel. Brown made a brilliant choice in locating the element of fire on the Path of Illumination in this church and with this amazing piece.
The sculpture is the centerpiece of the Cornaro Chapel which Bernini designed as the eventual burial site for the wealthy Cardinal Cornaro, whose lavish lifestyle shocked the people of his diocese. Considering that he served Venice, his spending habits must have been truly obscene. The good cardinal thought it prudent to have his memorial chapel built in Rome.
The Chapel, is a riot of colored marble and architectural details, designed to resemble a theatre. Statues of the Cornaro family sit in boxes on the sides, watching St Teresa in the throes of religious ecstasy just as if they were at the opera.
Golden (well, actually, bronze) rays, lit by a window above the piece, illuminate St. Teresa with a fiery glow. The sculpture captures a moment in her autobiography when she describes her most famous vision:
I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it.
As Langdon points out in Angels & Demons, the angel holding the fiery is a seraphim, a type of angel whose name literally means "fiery one."
I watched way too many awful videos showing the interior of Santa Maria della Vittoria, and found the one posted below to be the best. You can see the richly embellished decor of the church, and also see how high up St. Teresa is placed. You have to crane your neck to see her.
When in Rome, you can visit Santa Maria della Vittoria located at the intersection of Via 20 Settembre and Via Barberini Monday through Saturday from 9am -noon and 3-6pm and Sundays from 3-6pm.
