Abstract Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1647–1652), housed in Rome’s Cornaro Chapel, has long provoked debate over its fusion of spiritual rapture and erotic intensity. Drawing on Teresa of Ávila’s autobiographical account of her transverberation—a vision of an angel piercing her heart with divine love—this marble ensemble stages a moment of exquisite pain-sweetness … Continue reading La Grande Mort: Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa as Orgasmic Annihilation and Structural Release in a Patriarchal Hell-World