
Saint thomas aquinas a model of sensuous
beautyIn the middle ages, Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274), one of the greatest of the medieval Christian theologians, commented on what he thought were the elements of
Beauty. What was an offh
anded comment in his monumental Summa Theologica has become for many lovers of
beauty, a model of evaluation
and appreciation based on three concepts: wholeness, balance,
and radiance. If a work of art contains all the three elements, then the observer may be reasonably assured that the work is beautiful. Should one of these three components be found deficient then the work will be deficient;
and though it may gain acceptance as a work of art, it will never be considered beautiful. But before I propose my own opinions about
beauty, let me do a bit of history: The ancient Greeks’ word for
beauty was kalos, a word that owned other connotations such as “what is proper,” of “what is good;”
and as a result the Greeks didn’t leave us a clear cut model of
beauty.
And incidentally, though Plato’s theory of forms leads to an absolute
beauty, which is transcendental, I am interested in
beauty that is of this world.