Thomas van Aquino weigert het ambt van aartsbisschop van Napels 1610

Egbert Van Panderen created this engraving, "Thomas van Aquino weigert het ambt van aartsbisschop van Napels", which translates to "Thomas Aquinas Refuses the Office of Archbishop of Naples," sometime between 1590 and 1637. Van Panderen positions us in a moment of fraught negotiation between the earthly and the divine. Thomas Aquinas, bathed in holy light, kneels to refuse the archbishopric, offered by a figure of worldly power in elaborate garb. Born into nobility, Aquinas became a Dominican friar, dedicating his life to theological scholarship, even though his family violently opposed his choice. His intellectual prowess and spiritual devotion challenged the traditional expectations of his social class and gender in the medieval Catholic Church. The image captures a moment of personal refusal, echoing the broader tensions between religious conviction and worldly power during the Reformation. It highlights Aquinas's commitment to his spiritual path over social status, questioning the values of ambition and authority.