Question 1 · long_essay
8 marksQuestion 1 refers to the following work: Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy, c. 1647–1652 CE, marble (sculpture); stucco and gilt bronze (chapel).
Artists across diverse cultures and time periods have employed dramatic visual strategies to convey profound spiritual encounters and communion with the supernatural.
Select and completely identify another work from South, East, or Southeast Asia (300 BCE–1980 CE), Africa (1100–1980 CE), or Indigenous Americas (1000 BCE–1980 CE) that depicts a spiritual encounter, visionary experience, or communion with the divine.
You may select a work from the list below or any other relevant work from the specified content areas:
- Lintel 25, Structure 23, Yaxchilán
- Shiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja)
- Transformation Mask
In your essay:
- Accurately identify your selected work with at least two required identifiers beyond those provided in the prompt.
- Describe the subject matter of the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.
- Describe the subject matter of your selected work.
- Using specific visual evidence from both works, explain at least two similarities and/or differences in how each work conveys a divine or transcendent experience.
- Explain one similarity or difference in the religious, ceremonial, or cultural contexts in which both works functioned. Use specific contextual evidence from both works in your response.
Artists across diverse cultures and time periods have employed dramatic visual strategies to convey profound spiritual encounters and communion with the supernatural.
Select and completely identify another work from South, East, or Southeast Asia (300 BCE–1980 CE), Africa (1100–1980 CE), or Indigenous Americas (1000 BCE–1980 CE) that depicts a spiritual encounter, visionary experience, or communion with the divine.
You may select a work from the list below or any other relevant work from the specified content areas:
- Lintel 25, Structure 23, Yaxchilán
- Shiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja)
- Transformation Mask
In your essay:
- Accurately identify your selected work with at least two required identifiers beyond those provided in the prompt.
- Describe the subject matter of the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.
- Describe the subject matter of your selected work.
- Using specific visual evidence from both works, explain at least two similarities and/or differences in how each work conveys a divine or transcendent experience.
- Explain one similarity or difference in the religious, ceremonial, or cultural contexts in which both works functioned. Use specific contextual evidence from both works in your response.
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Worked solution
Sample High-Scoring Response (Selecting Lintel 25, Structure 23, Yaxchilán)
Identification: The selected comparative work is Lintel 25, Structure 23, Yaxchilán, created by the Maya culture in Chiapas, Mexico, circa 725 CE, carved from limestone.
Subject Matter:
The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa depicts the 16th-century Spanish Carmelite nun Teresa of Ávila experiencing a mystical transverberation. An angelic figure stands over Teresa holding a golden arrow tipped with fire, preparing to pierce her heart, while Teresa swoons backward in an intense state of spiritual rapture atop a floating marble cloud.
In Lintel 25, Structure 23, Yaxchilán, the relief carving depicts the Maya noblewoman Lady Xook engaging in a visionary bloodletting ritual. Following the self-inflicted sacrifice of pulling a barbed cord through her tongue, she gazes upward as a two-headed Vision Serpent emerges from a burning bowl of bloodstained paper, revealing an ancestral warrior/god emerging from its gaping jaws.
Visual Analysis & Comparison:
Bernini conveys transcendent spiritual ecstasy through theatrical dynamism, physical tension, and contrasting textures. The heavily draperied, cascading folds of Teresa's habit writhe in emotional turbulence, contrasting with the smooth, bare skin of her face, hands, and feet. Her limp posture, upturned eyes, and parted lips embody a physical-spiritual climax. Bernini enhances this with hidden natural overhead lighting reflecting off gilded bronze rays and theatrical framing inside an elaborate pedimented niche, flanked by relief portraits of the Cornaro patrons observing the miracle.
In Lintel 25, the Maya artist conveys supernatural revelation through high-relief carving, intricate incised details, and dynamic curvilinear contours. The undulating coils of the Vision Serpent dominate the upper composition, dwarfing Lady Xook below. The serpent’s open maw acts as an active spiritual portal from which the ancestral warrior armed with a spear emerges, directly facing the kneeling Lady Xook, whose huipil is finely patterned with geometric woven motifs.
Visual Similarity/Difference: A key visual similarity between the two works is the use of dramatic, hierarchical compositional arrangements that juxtapose human mortals with supernatural beings to communicate divine presence. In both works, the human figure (Teresa / Lady Xook) occupies a subordinate or reclining/kneeling position gazing toward an active supernatural entity (the angel / the Vision Serpent with warrior) who descends or rises above them. Alternatively, a key difference lies in the treatment of space: Bernini utilizes deep three-dimensional undercut marble within an architectural proscenium to create illusionistic spatial depth, whereas the Maya artist employs flat, shallow-relief planar registers where glyphic inscriptions and pictorial elements share the same shallow pictorial plane.
Contextual Analysis:
Contextually, Bernini's work was commissioned by Cardinal Federico Cornaro during the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Following the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church emphasized dramatic, emotionally charged art to revitalize lay piety and defend Catholic mysticism against Protestant skepticism, using Saint Teresa’s autobiographical accounts (The Life of Teresa of Jesus) to validate the sensory nature of personal divine communion.
In contrast, Lintel 25 functioned within Maya dynastic and religious statecraft. Commissioned for Structure 23, a royal palace/temple dedicated to Lady Xook by King Shield Jaguar II, the lintel was placed above a doorway where viewers passing beneath would be reminded of the queen's crucial ritual bloodletting. Her sacrifice facilitated divine communion with patron deities, thereby legitimizing the king's political power, military victory, and cosmic order.
Marking scheme
Scoring Rubric (8 points total):
[1 point] Identification: Accurately identifies the selected comparison work using at least two correct identifiers beyond the information in the prompt (e.g., date/century, medium, culture, location, artist).
[1 point] Description (Provided Work): Accurately describes the subject matter/iconography of the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (e.g., Saint Teresa experiencing transverberation; angel holding an arrow/spear; Teresa swooning on a cloud).
[1 point] Description (Selected Work): Accurately describes the subject matter/iconography of the selected work (e.g., Lady Xook witnessing the Vision Serpent/ancestor emerging from a bowl of burning bloodstained paper; or Shiva dancing within a halo of fire crushing Apasmara).
[1 point] Visual Analysis (Provided Work): Uses specific visual evidence from the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa to explain how the work conveys a divine/transcendent experience (e.g., dynamic deeply carved drapery, limp posture with parted lips, natural light illuminated via hidden window, gilded bronze rays).
[1 point] Visual Analysis (Selected Work): Uses specific visual evidence from the selected work to explain how it conveys a divine/transcendent experience (e.g., swirling form of the serpent emerging from the bowl, stylized iconography, energetic cosmic dance posture of Nataraja with multiple arms).
[1 point] Visual Comparison: Explains at least one visual similarity OR difference in how both works visually communicate a divine/transcendent state (e.g., contrasting planar relief carving with three-dimensional theatrical marble sculpture; or comparing the dynamic, kinetic posturing used to evoke supernatural energy).
[1 point] Contextual Analysis (Provided Work): Explains how the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa functions within its specific historical, religious, or cultural context (e.g., Catholic Counter-Reformation, Council of Trent guidelines for religious art, promotion of Carmelite mysticism, Cornaro family private chapel patronage).
[1 point] Contextual Analysis (Selected Work): Explains how the selected work functions within its specific historical, religious, or cultural context (e.g., Maya royal bloodletting to maintain cosmic order and royal legitimacy, or Chola dynasty Hindu temple processional devotion to achieve liberation/darshan).
[1 point] Identification: Accurately identifies the selected comparison work using at least two correct identifiers beyond the information in the prompt (e.g., date/century, medium, culture, location, artist).
[1 point] Description (Provided Work): Accurately describes the subject matter/iconography of the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (e.g., Saint Teresa experiencing transverberation; angel holding an arrow/spear; Teresa swooning on a cloud).
[1 point] Description (Selected Work): Accurately describes the subject matter/iconography of the selected work (e.g., Lady Xook witnessing the Vision Serpent/ancestor emerging from a bowl of burning bloodstained paper; or Shiva dancing within a halo of fire crushing Apasmara).
[1 point] Visual Analysis (Provided Work): Uses specific visual evidence from the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa to explain how the work conveys a divine/transcendent experience (e.g., dynamic deeply carved drapery, limp posture with parted lips, natural light illuminated via hidden window, gilded bronze rays).
[1 point] Visual Analysis (Selected Work): Uses specific visual evidence from the selected work to explain how it conveys a divine/transcendent experience (e.g., swirling form of the serpent emerging from the bowl, stylized iconography, energetic cosmic dance posture of Nataraja with multiple arms).
[1 point] Visual Comparison: Explains at least one visual similarity OR difference in how both works visually communicate a divine/transcendent state (e.g., contrasting planar relief carving with three-dimensional theatrical marble sculpture; or comparing the dynamic, kinetic posturing used to evoke supernatural energy).
[1 point] Contextual Analysis (Provided Work): Explains how the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa functions within its specific historical, religious, or cultural context (e.g., Catholic Counter-Reformation, Council of Trent guidelines for religious art, promotion of Carmelite mysticism, Cornaro family private chapel patronage).
[1 point] Contextual Analysis (Selected Work): Explains how the selected work functions within its specific historical, religious, or cultural context (e.g., Maya royal bloodletting to maintain cosmic order and royal legitimacy, or Chola dynasty Hindu temple processional devotion to achieve liberation/darshan).