insipration as divine madness

Going back to Plato's "Ion," discuss the idea of the artist's inspiration as divine madness in relation to "Belly of an Architect," "Artemisia," or "Camille Claudel."

In Plato’s “Ion”, the philosopher Socrates is having an intellectual discussion with the actor Ion about the source of artistic creativity. Ion states that “good poets by a divine inspiration interpret the things of God to us,” thus he believes that artistic creativity comes solely from God but actors, artists and poets interprets the way in which to use the creativity given to them by God.

Socrates, on the other hand, believes that artistic creativity is derived from divine unearthly and stimulating inspiration. He also goes on to link inspiration to the concept of a muse, where artists rely on a person or thing (usually a woman) to gain enlightenment.

In the movies Belly of an Architect, Camille Claudel, and Artemisia, all contain a modern day forms of a muse. Krakalite looks to the long dead architect Boulee for inspiration. Camille Claudel, looks to Rodin for inspiration. Artemisia looks to Tassi for inspiration. The modern day muse, is a role reversal since there are now affluent women artists. I think the dynamic between the ‘muse’ and the artists shown are somewhat a reaction against male authority and the influence of femininity.

The concept of a ‘muse’ in Belly of an Architect is somewhat different from the two female artist movies. Krakalite looks to the dead architect Boulee for inspiration, and he also seems to have conversations with the dead architect. This plays into the artist’s inspiration as divine madness. To modern day viewers, as seen in most of the movies, artist’s inspirations are almost always linked with mental disorders. The misunderstood is translated into mentally ill.


Camille Claudel’s relationship with Rodin, at first inspires her artwork. But the dynamic of their relationship changes when Rodin leaves Claudel. We also see her inspiration with her love of clay. She leaves her family without telling them, and goes to find clay. The clay is a big part of her inspiration as seen in her artwork. With Rodin as Claudel’s modern day muse, we can see how the muse affects her life, her artwork thrives when they are together. They teach each other, they learn together. They are each other’s muses. We also see how Claudel’s experiences shape her artwork. Claudel creates a bust of Rodin which is thought to be one of her greatest works.

Artemisia isn’t the best example of this discussion of artist inspiration as divine madness because it is so fictionalized. In the movie, Artemisia is obsessed with looking and touching; this contributes to Ion’s argument of artists gaining enlightenment from god and then interpreting creativity. She infuses herself and different events of her life into her mythical paintings. This is seen at the trial where the Judge brings out her painting Judith and Holoferness. Her relationship and rape from Tassi depicts Artemisia as Judith and Tassi as Holoferness in her painting.

Artists derive their creativity from multiple sources. There isn’t one complete definition of creativity. Different sources influence the artist and the artist interprets these instances into a creative outlet. In all three of these movies, creativity is linked with divine madness. It is easy for society to group artists into one individual category because it makes society feel at easy to group the ‘not normal’ people together.