We explain what inspiration is, the origin of the term and its various meanings. Also, beliefs about its causes.
What is inspiration?
Inspiration is a sudden disposition to carry out a exercise, especially when it comes to something related to the creativity or to matters of the spirit. For example, in the art inspiration is an outbreak of creativity, that is, an abduction of creative power that pushes the artist to produce her work, and then disappears.
At the same time, one can speak of inspiration to refer to those factors that led someone to create something, or the raw material versioned or adapted to other formats. Thus, a film can be "inspired" by a book or someone's life, when it recreates them in a more or less free way, that is, when the book or the biography served as raw material for the director's creative process.
The word inspiration comes from the Latin inspiration and is composed of the voices in- (“in”) and I will breathe ("breathe"). Its meaning is applied to the world of creativity in a rather figurative way: just as air enters the lungs, creativity “enters” the artist. This is because the creative rapture was attributed to the action of deities (called "muses" in the Greco-Roman imaginary) on the mind of the artist.
This idea of inspiration as a divine or supernatural gift exists also in the religion. Genius, in fact, comes from that very sense.
Specifically in the Christian imaginary, the angels or the divine hand could inspire the prophets, producing visions for them, or also for the artists, whose works are therefore in contact with the essence of God. It was even said to be the "divine breath" (inspiration) the one who awakened said talents in the humanity.
Today inspiration remains a mysterious concept, difficult to define. Some artists and thinkers consider that inspiration does not exist, or that in any case it is a state of "grace" or "easiness" that can be propitiated through the work itself. Quoting Pablo Picasso: "Let inspiration get you working." Others try to reproduce it through stimulants, rituals or even psychotropic drugs.
In any case, inspiration is traditionally understood as something ephemeral, delicate, that the slightest disturbance can destroy, and that is why artists take care of it jealously.