Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria

This guide to Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome opens with Teresa of Avila's own account of a mystical vision, published by the Catholic Church, which became Bernini's brief for the Cornaro Chapel. It traces the sculpture he carved between 1645 and 1652, and the marble box seats where members of the Cornaro family appear to watch the scene mid-conversation. Cardinal Federico Cornaro, who commissioned it, had just watched a new pope cut Bernini off from his richest patron.