Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1880 — The Nude in Art. [ARTICLE]

The Nude in Art.

atronir ooints whtn he said* 7 world of culture to join then in the m not the question whether It is poesible to here a white marble nudity that would be pure to every pure mind. To that all will agree. But the practical question of to-day for Christiana to ssttlo as before God and His word it wbetbdegrof of colorto represent life, and*in every attitude of wantonneee—whether in the name of art they can meddle with each 'filthy subjects ss Leda and the Swan, Danas. Venus and Adonis, and not be defiled. The French school of art has a Acuity for Dotting vies forward in voluptuous and attractive forma to the young, while the moral (if there be any.aara the “Prodigal Sul) is almost hidden in a corner. And this French school is now the fashionable one tor American Christiana. Besides the seductive influences of these obscenities upon our youth, we are to remember that every nude pictured female presupposes a nude real female sitting before the artist as his mod' el. The immorality of the business, ev ery one who has read the history or art knows. -Jv Has it corns to this, that the Church of Christ is resdy to break down the barriers which separated it from the licentious world, and to adopt Greek culture in the place of Christian ethics? French art and the theatres are doing all they can to promote loose notions of the relations between the sexes, and to steep society in immorality. Some easy-going Christians are being caught in the snare. It is fashionable to admire indecencies, and Christians wish to be fashionable. It is now hard to convict our low, obscene theatres before the courts, because the plea is that the respectable theatres have the same obscenities, and Christian mothers take their daughters to them.