The concept of beauty in Thomas Aquinas: Between the metaphysical and the divine

Abstract

The aesthetic thought of Thomas Aquinas conceives beauty not only as a sensible attribute but also as a metaphysical dimension linked to being and to God. Although scholasticism lacks specific treatises on art, in Aquinas the notion of the beautiful is integrated with both ontology and morality, drawing on the influences of Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. His central notions are proportion, perfection, magnitude, and clarity, understood in both the material and the spiritual realms. Beauty, at different ontological levels, proceeds from God as the ultimate source, is reflected in the order of the universe, and is expressed in movement. In the moral sphere, a beautiful act is one in which all its parts maintain coherence, while ugliness arises from disproportion or lack of integrity. Claritas holds an essential place, as a light emanating from the soul, the body, and above all from Christ, considered the perfectissima pulchritudo as the faithful image of the Father. Thus, Thomistic aesthetics transcends the sensible and the utilitarian, presenting beauty as a transcendental property of being, inseparable from truth, unity, and goodness, and always oriented toward the divine.