3 ms·

It's hard to say that the Sistine Chapel was inspired by religion - it was paid for by religion, yes.

• jacquesm 12y ago
  See sister comment.
• Natsu 12y ago
  What do you mean by 'inspired' here? When looking at the chapel I see a large number of religious figures and imagery, so it seems odd to say that art depicting religious subjects, in a religious setting, sponsored by a religious patron was not inspired by Christianity.
  • laureny 12y ago
    It was ordered and paid for by the catholic church, of course it's going to represent concepts of the catholic creed. If NASA ordered their rockets to be painted with science based themes, you could hardly call such paintings "inspired by science". "Inspired" implies that the artist woke up with an idea and painted it.
    • jacquesm 12y ago
      Michelangelo was mostly told to 'paint the ceiling', what he painted was of his own devising. For sure he would probably not have been paid if he painted a forest scene but there is some evidence in his own hand that his inspiration was mostly scripture (the OT). I'm pretty sure the reigning pope approved of the design, both from an execution perspective as from the content itself. But if he had done the job according to the normal way of decorating ceilings in that day we likely would not be having this discussion. It really is a masterpiece.
    • Natsu 12y ago
      Why not? They would be the genesis of the idea, after all. It just seems bizarre to me to say that religion did not urge him to do this, which is the usual meaning of 'inspire.'