Creative inspiration in the arts may have come from a source beyond the human.
When asked the meaning of one of his poems, Robert Browning replied, "When I composed that poem only God and I knew what it meant. Now, only God knows." That is not as bad as it sounds. Artists offer messages, and messengers need not know the full import of their messages.
With reference to St. Peter's dome by Michelangelo, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "He builded better than he knew." The many messages of Buonarotti's ceiling of the Sistine Chapel contain messages unintended by the artist.
We should not feel the need to ask the meaning or source of an artist's creativity. Enjoy the work for what it says to you.
