The Glorification of Wisdom
Santa Maria Novella, Florence with special reference to an
Early Renaissance Symbolic Colour Language

The most spectacular display of colour symbolism that can be seen anywhere in the world was created in the Spanish chapel of S. Maria Novella in Florence in the 13th century. Here one of the murals, the Glorification of Wisdom, is remarkable in that it sums up the whole of the 13th century curriculum in education. Not only that, but it can be virtually read through its language of colour with its own pragmatic scenario, its semantic imagery and a syntactic liturgy that illuminates the meaning of the grand design.

St Thomas Aquinas