John Wesley: Art Critic?

JOHN WESLEY MOMENTS
DAVE HANSON

John Wesley was a man of many interests. He read everything he could find about electricity, medicine, and numerous other subjects. He was interested in architecture and art. Here is a quote from Wesley about art:

“Of pictures I do not pretend to be a judge, but there is one, by Paul Rubens, which particularly struck me, both with the design and the execution of it. It is Zacharias and Elizabeth, with John the Baptist, two or three years old, coming to visit Mary, and our Lord sitting upon her knee. The passions are surprisingly expressed, even in the children; but I could not see either the decency or common sense of painting them stark naked: nothing can defend or excuse this. It is shockingly absurd, even an Indian being the judge. I allow, a man who paints thus may have a good hand, but certainly he has no brains.” Feb. 7, 1772