MEMMI, Lippo
(b. ca. 1285, Siena, d. ca. 1361, Siena)

Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas

c. 1340
Tempera on wood, 375 x 258 cm
Santa Caterina, Pisa

In this altarpiece St Thomas Aquinas receives not only the divine wisdom but also the wisdom of the Evangelists and the philosophers of the classical world. He then convey this to the Christian community, and also, in order to convert them, to the enemies of the Church. The intertwining structure of these rays of vision or wisdom determines the composition of the picture and creates a pictorial order which reflects the divine order of the cosmos.

The panel probably was painted on the occasion of the canonization of St Thomas in 1323.