\paperw4260 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 The picture was painted by Benozzo Gozzoli during his Pisan period, at the time when he was working on the monumental undertaking of t
he frescoes in the Camposanto. It is a large painting on panel that used to be located in a particularly important place: according to Vasari, ôbehind the throne of the Archbishopö in Pisa Cathedral. The panel, shaped and arched, depicts Christ, flanked
by the four Evangelists, St. Paul and St. Peter, in the act of approving the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. In fact the phrase at the top reads BENE SCRIPSISTI DE ME THOMMA. The saint is seated in the middle between Aristotle and Plato and an Oriental s
age lies prostrate in defeat at his feet. This was probably meant to represent Averroδs and to signify that Thomist philosophy, as heir and successor to the thought of the ancient Greeks, constituted a powerful bulwark of religious orthodoxy. At the bott
om of the picture, in a crowded scene where the painter has shown cunning originality by arranging the figures around an empty space, we see numerous scholars discussing the works of St. Thomas. They include a portrait of Pope Sixtus IV, along with cardi
nals and the heads and generals of various religious orders. Vasari praised this picture as ôBenozzoÆs best and most finished work.ö\par
