Online Archive of University of Virginia Scholarship
"What Has Earth to Do With Heaven?": The Relationship Between Teresa of Avila's Mystical Experience and Description of the Transverberation of Her Heart and the Iconography of Divine Love and Saintly Martyrdom797 views
Author
Goodman, Eleanor Hope, Department of Art, University of Virginia
Advisors
Goedde, Lawrence, Department of Art, University of Virginia
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how Teresa of Avila's,visual descriptions in her Life are not simply evocations of her actual mystical experiences, but accounts colored by her concern with and interest in the visual and her exposure to pictures. In turn, her writings were a source for later pictorial iconography in Counter Reformation Europe. Thus, Teresa's written imagery fits into a long iconographic tradition that in itself influenced her descriptions. Her descriptions, in particular, her account of the Transverberation of her heart, were then fed back into the visual arts as various artists interpreted her experiences in order to spread her understanding of God throughout Catholic Europe.
Degree
MA (Master of Arts)
Keywords
Teresa -- of Avila, Saint -- 1515-1582; Teresa -- of Avila, Saint -- 1515-1582 -- Art; Mysticism -- History -- 16th century; God -- Love -- Art; Martyrdom in art; Christian saints in art
Language
English
Rights
All rights reserved (no additional license for public reuse)
Goodman, Eleanor Hope. "What Has Earth to Do With Heaven?": The Relationship Between Teresa of Avila's Mystical Experience and Description of the Transverberation of Her Heart and the Iconography of Divine Love and Saintly Martyrdom. University of Virginia, Department of Art, MA (Master of Arts), 1991-01-01, https://doi.org/10.18130/V31Z41S10.
