# The Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas \(detail\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ANDREA DA FIRENZE]() - Date: 1351-1400 - Technique: Fresco ## Commentary In the lower register of the fresco a uniform row of fourteen thrones extends like a line of choir stalls across the wall. The detail shows the right side thrones with female figures identified as the personifications of the liberal arts \(from right to left: Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Music, Astronomy, Geometry, and Arithmetic\). The antique and biblical representatives of the liberal arts \(Priscian, Cicero, Aristotle, Tubalcain, Ptolemy, Euclid, and Pythagoras\) are at their feet. Priscian was a Latin grammarian who lived in the 6th century AD. Cicero was a Roman lawyer, orator and statesman, 1st century BC. Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, 4th century BC, who invented formal logic. Tubalcain was a metalworker, mentioned in Genesis, identified with music possibly through a misunderstanding by Isidore of Seville. Ptolemy was a Greek astronomer, 2nd century AD, whose system prevailed until Copernicus. Euclid was a Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC; his textbook was used for 2000 years. Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician, 6th century BC. In addition, the personifications of the seven planets are found in the tympana of the thrones. ## Related artworks - [Ascension of Christ \(south vault cell\)]() - [Bearing of the Cross, Crucifixion, Descent into Hell \(north wall\)]() - [Bearing of the Cross \(detail\)]() - [Bearing of the Cross]() - [Crucifixion \(detail\)]() - [Crucifixion \(detail\)]() - [Crucifixion \(detail\)]() - [Crucifixion]() - [Descent into Hell \(detail\)]() - [Descent into Hell]() - [Madonna and Child with Saints \(detail\)]() - [Madonna and Child with Saints]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()