The 17th and 18th centuries in Europe gave rise to sincere and contrasting artistic movements characterized by both Baroque and Rococo styles. With two distinct eras, we find one overly ornate with dramatic tendencies, while the other expressed a more playful and light-hearted sensibility within the elaborate landscape. Bernini's The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, created during the High Roman Baroque period, embodies both great similarities and great contradictions with Jean-Honoré Fragonard's La Balançoire of the Rococo, in its composition and theme. Baroque and Rococo masterpieces were influenced by the cultural and political temperaments of their time and space. The Baroque aesthetic was serious, while the Rococo style featured a lot of fantasy. In Baroque art, bold contrasts of bright light and dark shadows were used. in the form of tenebrism. However, lighting in Rococo artwork was applied to create warmth and intimacy. Baroque color palettes were vibrant and rich, while Rococo favored ubiquitous golds and pastels. Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa was housed in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, where Bernini also designed the stucco and painting of the exterior. Bernini has created a complete environment and setting for Theresa's subject that truly captures the viewer's attention. He used strong contour lines and created exquisite texture in the polished marble. On both sides of the sculpture are relief carvings depicting male members of the Cornaro family, who commissioned the work. Gesamtkunstwerk is the German term for a "total work of art" that uses more than one medium such as painting and sculpture, something Bernini was mastering here when the term was coined. There...... middle of paper ......of, "of the moment". Rococo was known as the enlightenment when the divine right of kings was overthrown, and these changing times were reflected in the themes of art. These themes were private relationships free from royal constraints, as well as moods of pleasure, sensuality and romance. The intimate conversations and gestures created during the Rococo era have replaced the regal and grandiose displays of the Baroque. In Fragonard's La Balançoire, the theme is that of two lovers who have conspired to have an older man push the young woman into the swing while her lover lies in the bushes beneath her. The not-so-disguised element of this painting is that as she ascends into the air, she can spread her legs so her lover can see up her skirt. Fragonard's Swing is a fine example of the lifestyle of the Rococo period, which differed from the religiosity and morality of the Baroque..