I think it incredibly ironic that Michelangelo's statue of David is as huge as it is, because David was much, much smaller than Goliath, and with the statue it seems that the tables have turned. Humor aside, though, David is one considered one of the greatest pieces of art because, as according to Wikipedia, "it mimics divine creation". If you think about it, the creation of man was much like the creation of art that man does. And if man is the culmination of God's artistry, then that would explain why Michelangelo was so keen on sculpting the male body - he wanted to partake of a divine action.
I think that if there is one thing more powerful than experiencing art as a bystander, it is experiencing art within the creation process. Art can affect you after it has been finished, but I know from my own experience writing poetry and short stories, that the true joy of art comes with the creation of it. The thrill of putting things together, pulling things apart and watching something new arise beats just looking or reading an already prepared something by tenfold. Van der Leeuw classifies dance and theatre as being correlated with creation and God the Father, but I think that this does injustice to the fact that all art requires creation, and that there is that creation experience.
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