Saint Longinus
Bernini is known for using intense emotion to communicate a psychological or spiritual awakening in his subject. The way in which he depicted a subject's fabric was often manipulated by Bernini to enhance the drama of the scene. Longinus's clothes twist and billow around him with great intensity, acting as a visual representation of Longinus's spiritual moment converting to Christianity. The billowing fabric also suggests another important trait of Baroque sculpture and Bernini's work, namely movement. Bernini has composed the scene as if the viewer has stumbled upon Saint Longinus, frozen in time at the exact moment of his spiritual transformation. The fabric, depicted in what would otherwise be an unrealistic placement, suggests movement and that the viewer has just stumbled upon Longinus in his exact moment of spiritual awakening.