THE ARTS AND RELIGION 263 



paganism to the warm, kindly feelings typified in the 

 portrayal of the peaceful tie between mother and 

 child. Since the days of the Renaissance, the art 

 of painting has recognized, more and more frankly, 

 the unsuppressible power of the sex instinct, and 

 has found, in the nude female figure, and to a some- 

 what less extent in the male figure, the elements of 

 a charm and beauty that have their basis in the 

 fundamental physical and aesthetic needs of human 

 nature. Very gradually, as people have grown more 

 gentle, more cultivated, and more introspective, the 

 greatest pictorial art has come to occupy itself less 

 and less with subjects subserving the aggrandizement 

 of man, and more and more with human relations in 

 which the charm and beauty of sex play always so 

 potent and often so determining a role. The human- 

 izing influences of Christianity have had much to do 

 with facilitating this tendency which continues to 

 operate to-day, as we may see in the mural decora- 

 tions of Puvis de Chavannes, the modern represen- 

 tative of the spirit of Botticelli. But the humanizing 

 lessons of religion have been learned; the beauty 

 child has learned to walk alone, and the art of to-day 

 reflects the kindlier human feelings based on no 

 creed but on a broader appeal to the chivalry and 

 justice of man's nature. And at every turn it is 

 apparent that this growth has its foundation in the 

 emotional expressions of sexual relations and espe- 

 cially those that have arisen in family life. 



The development of landscape must be regarded 



