One of those jaw-dropping marvels that you can enjoy in Rome, simply walking into a church..

This is the blessed Ludovica Albertoni sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. You can see it in the church of San Francesco a Ripa in Trastevere.⁠⁠Ludovica Albertoni lived between the 1400 and 1500s, she was married to a violent man, she had three daughters. When the husband died, she decided to dedicate her life to God and to help the poor people, especially during the devastating Sack of Rome in 1527.⁠⁠She died on January 31st 1533, in her bed, during sunset, the light was streaming in from her window.. Bernini depicts her in that very moment, when she is pulling out her last gasp, the light coming from the side..⁠

She is in agony and with the last spasm she repeats the words of Jesus on the cross: “God, in your hands I leave my soul”.⁠⁠Isn’t just impressive how Bernini can photograph into marble an instant, an emotion, a story? The way a solid stone of marble becomes soft and fluffy in clothes and pillows?⁠