Comparative Study of the Influence of Saint Augustine & Tomas Aquinas Theories on Christian Medieval Age Painting

Middle Ages contain several doctrinal paintings about Christian religion from fifth to fifteenth centuries. Saint Augustine & Tomas Aquinas were the two famous philosophers of the early & the late periods of Middle Ages that had most influenced the paintings of this ages. Saint Augustine’s divinely Christian teaching linked Christian teachings with that of the Plato and Neoplatonism’s theology, during the whole Middle Ages.
Through his divinely theory, the church became the most powerful and influential reference of Christian world to lead people towards the heavenly world, welfare and prosperity; the prosperity which is nothing but depicting God, whose existence is the reason behind all the world beauties.  Augustine’s divinely teachings, which were based on the transcendence of the mankind and seeking for the way towards the heavenly world, endowed the arts of the Middle Ages with a divine and metaphysical outlook.
Paying attention to the physical world was not considered materialistic and objective, but was a way of conceiving the higher, celestial aspect of things. He believed that these material objects are the reflections of the spiritual world. So his beliefs were based upon proportion and unity (the unity of the whole and the part), and that everything should portray a perfect image just like the spiritual ones.
During the 13^th century and with the emergence of Franciscans and Dominicans orders, particularly the great Scholastic philosopher of the day, i.e. Saint Tomas Aquinas, a revolution happened in church teachings. At this point of time, also considered a type of revival of the Aristotle’s philosophy, people like Saint Tomas Aquinas were seeking ways of adapting philosophical concepts with Christian teachings. Therefore, this time period might be deemed as the age of successful association of religion, philosophy and art.
Following the previous ideals, Aquinas emphasized on teaching art as a medium for helping the human race attain prosperity, but he propounded that paying attention to concrete, material things is the prelude to recognize the spiritual. It should be noted that the influence of such belief is noticeable in the artworks created towards the end of late thirteen and then in fifteen centuries.
He was of the opinion that beauty has three prerequisites: perfection, proportion and clarity. Such theories affected the appearance of the statues that were created after the thirteen century.
Although these statues still lacked anatomic characteristics of their Renaissance counterparts; however, they seem more real as compared to previous centuries. It means that during this time span, and under the influence of Aquinas’s teachings, we can see more real dispositions as well as intrinsic emotional characteristics even in the statues and portraits of the saints.
Ultimately it could be said that the pre- thirteen centuries paintings are of spiritual and metaphysical outlook while after the thirteenth century, these paintings take more material and personal perspectives and thus make way for the advent of Renaissance.
This research has taken descriptive- analytic method to study two different eras in Middle Ages, and answer these questions: What are the differences of Augustine and Aquinas’s ideas about art? What influences did they leave on the art of painting in the Middle Ages? And finally, what are the differences of the paintings created during the early Middle Ages as compared to those created towards the end of the eras? Moreover, the essay aims to review the thoughts and beliefs of the two abovementioned philosophers and analyze their influence over the painting styles of the Middle Ages.
The conclusions indicated that before the thirteenth century, features such as attention to spiritual world, simplicity, lack of perspective, transparence and brightness of colors, proportion, unity and generally an ideal form of art developed under the influence of Augustine. But after the thirteen century, while the previous characteristics were being still employed in the paintings, under the influence of Aquinas’s theories, some earthly and emotional aspects were added to the paintings of the time through paying attention to the development of spirit from the physical to the spiritual world and the use of intellect and faith as the two ways of perception.