A cheer for Kuyper, who offers a great summary of Calvin’s views of art: “the blind prejudice against Sculpture, on the ground of the Second Commandment, Calvin declares unworthy of refutation. He exults in Music as a marvelous power to move hearts and to ennoble tendencies and morals. Among the excellent favors of God for our recreation and enjoyment, it occupies in his mind the highest rank. And even when art condescends to become the instrument of mere entertainment to the passes, he asserts that this sort of pleasure should not be denied them. In view of all this we may say that Calvin esteemed art, in all its ramifications, as a gift of God, or, more especially, as a gift of the Holy Ghost; that he fully grasped the profound effects worked by art upon the life of the emotions; that he appreciated the end for which hart had been given, viz., that by it we might glorify God, and ennoble human life, and drink at the fountain of higher pleasures, yea even of common sport; and finally, that so far from considering art a mere imitation of nature, eh attributed to it the noble vocation of disclosing to man a higher reality than was offered to us by this sinful and corrupted world.”
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