The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and Its Influence on Scenic Design of Late Middle-Ages

Thomas Aquinas is the one philosopher among these middle-age philosophers who has attracted most attention from twentieth century researchers and scholars, hence the devotion of numerous essays, researches and texts to his thought. Nevertheless, no research known to the author has read scenic design of late middle-ages in the light of Aquinas’s philosophical thought in order to investigate whether his thought has had any impact on the visual elements of middle-age theatre and performance arts or not.Saint Aquinas sought beauty in various elements. Aquinas brought three elements - Integritas, Consonantia, Claritas – under the unifying concept of absolute perfection. In other words, he considered each element as part of infinite perfection. All this, while scenic design or stage design during the middle-ages – along with Gothic architecture – were made up of parts which despite their perfection, suffered from the defect of “detachedness”. As a result, visual elements could reach unity only if juxtaposed beside one another; in this way they could account for divinely concepts.The present research takes as its point of departure, an investigation of the aesthetics of the middle-ages and especially the aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas so that it becomes possible to compare Aquinas’s thoughts on aesthetic matters with scenic design of religious theatre pieces of late middle-ages. Towards its end, the present research considers the impact of Aquinas’s thoughts on the formation of some aspects of Renaissance aesthetics.