Arts, Artists in the Lower Middle Ages

Abstract

The article tries to clarify the function played by the arts and the artists in the Lower Middles Ages. The author describes the tasks of the art and the artist in the medieval world, the conception of the art given by Thomas of Aquinas, Dante and Giotto, the conceptual determination of the ratio factibulum, the strengthening of the artist as a pragmatic and theoretical person. The basic thesis is that the artist as a cocreator and upholder of the divine work makes that his works may be taken as a way to see God in the creative and functional work, either artistic or mechanical.