The Greeks thought their gods as incarnate persons; and all the artist had to see to, was that this incarnate personality should be impressive in his marble.
Christianity, on the other hand, made the moral and spiritual nature of man all-essential.

It sprang from an earlier religion, that judged it impious to give any form to God.

The body and its terrestrial activity occupied but a subordinate position in its system.

It was the life of the soul, separable from this frame of flesh, and destined to endure when earth and all that it contains had ended--a life that upon this planet was continued conflict and aspiring struggle--which the arts, insofar as they became its instrument, were called upon to illustrate.

It was the worship of a Deity, all spirit, to be sought on no one sacred hill, to be adored in no transcendent shape, that they were bound to heighten.