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Ecstastic about Ecstasy |
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written
by joeplumb / 10.24.2005 |
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| The Ecstasy of Beata Ludovica Albertoni |
1 of 1 |
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Assignment |
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I was drawn to Beata Ludovica’s mouth first, which to me it betrayed the entire scene. From the mouth I glanced to the face, to confirm my suspicions about the portrait. Here again the scene was pretty clear, but again I wasn’t completely sure. I really didn’t understand the scene at first. I’m just not used to seeing fully clothed women making that face. My next instinct was to look at her hands, and they seemed to be holding a wound of some kind. This only confused me more. My eyes retraced their steps. The mouth, the face, the hands. This was how I understood the scene as a whole, through these three elements.
The ecstasy of Beata Ludovica seems to me to differ from the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa only in the cherub which floats above Theresa. Their faces are very similar, with the head tiled back and to the side in both cases. The mouths as well seem to be virtually the same. Their hand positioning is different, but it makes sense when considering the cherub. I believe the cherub above Saint Theresa is an indication of the cause of her ecstasy, making it less of an unknown cause than for Beata. Theresa’s ecstasy is clearer, it is a gift from God. It might be sexual in nature, but the cause is still easily seen. For Beata it is harder to grasp this concept, and I was left searching for the cause of her ecstasy. I didn’t really look at Saint Theresa’s hands, because I knew they weren’t the source of the ecstasy. This is the important difference, I believe, between the two.
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