18th century

Saint Thomas Aquinas Visited in his Study by Saint Bonaventure

Saint Thomas Aquinas is seen here writing in his study, receiving inspiration from the Holy Spirit, which appears above his head in the form of a dove. The artist has depicted him with seraph wings, which were often added to late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century paintings of saints in Latin America, in part to emphasize their angelic nature. The figure approaching Thomas’s study door is Saint Bonaventure, shown wearing his cardinal’s robes over his brown Franciscan habit. Saints Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure were both Doctors of the Church, a title given to figures that had helped establish fundamental church doctrine.