Boardman Robinson on St. Thomas Aquinas

THE DEPICTION of St. Thomas Aquinas below is from Boardman Robinson's murals in the Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., named the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building. Found in the lobby of that building, it is part of the series entitled "Great Codifiers of the Law." Though not in any traditional sense a "codifier" of laws, St. Thomas must be considered one of the great synthesizers of the law, particularly the Natural Law and its relationship to the Eternal Law (upwards) and to human law (downwards). St. Thomas's "Treatise on Law" is a masterful synopsis of these issues, and is one of the first places anyone should turn to in trying to understand the doctrine of Natural Law.

Boardman Robinson (1876-1952), a contemporary Canadian-American artist, was highly regarded for his book illustrations, cartoons, and other artwork, including murals. Some of his notable illustrations include Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (Random House, 1933), The Idiot (Random House, 1933), Shakespeare’s “King Lear” (Limited Editions Club, 1939), Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology (Limited Editions Club, 1942), Hermann Melville’s Moby Dick (Limited Editions Club, 1943), and Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (Random House, 1944). Robinson’s murals include the Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C. (completed 1937), the Rockefeller Center in New York City, Kaufmann’s Department Store in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania (“History of Commerce,” on canvas with automobile paint, 1928-29), and the Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs, Colorado (completed 1931), the Colorado Springs, Colorado Fine Arts Center (completed 1936), and the Englewood, Colorado Post Office (completed in 1940).