What I find interesting is that judging from artwork through the ages, the ideal male and female figures have been relatively unchanged. Only recently have views begun to change rapidly and I believe it had a lot to do with the rapid exchange of information that has come about through the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent Information Age.

Anyone who has paid any attention to the last 60 years would have noticed that the ideal women have gone through a number of changes. As recent as the 1920s, women who were considered to have the ideal physique would be viewed as overweight by today's standards. Marilyn Monroe herself would probably have a hard time getting a modeling job if she had been born today. Looking at the examples of ideal women in 16th century Flemish painter Peter Ruben's art, one can see how things have changed.

The earliest depiction of a female form in art, and arguably one of the earliest forms of art ever discovered is the Venus doll of Willendorf, which is dated to circa 22,000 BC. The 4 inch high doll is of an obese, faceless woman, thought to be a depiction of a goddess of an ancient culture and a representation of fertility.

I think art had a lot to do with changes seen in what is considered ideal. The Art Nouveau movement certainly had a part in it. European influences included Alphonse Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley and Otto Eckmann, and Americans such as William Bradley, Maxfield Parrish and Charles Gibson. Ironically, some of the female depictions by woman artist Jessie King in the early 1900s look strikingly like the fragile, willowy supermodels of our day. Perhaps history does repeat itself. Or maybe it never changed at all.

So what does all this have to do with Godly courtship? I'm getting to it. 8-)