I've said it before....

...but it bears repeating. I was going to post this elsewhere on teh intarwubs, but then my Life's-Too-Short-O-Meter went off, and I didn't post it.

But I saved the text and reproduce it here:

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo was a media tie-in work-for-hire. If Pope Julius II didn't like one of the frescoes, then Michelangelo hauled ass to change it, because the Pope was the one who commissioned the work. In fact, Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor and hated painting, and didn't particularly want to paint the ceiling, but he did it because he was a working artist and Pope Julius was the guy paying him.

The myth of starving artists, and of artists who create whatever they want in order to fulfill a vision regardless of what lesser minds want is just that: a myth, mostly perpetuated by artists who can't sell their work. Most of the greatest works of art in the history of humanity weren't created because the artists had a great vision they had to share with the world, they were created because the artists were paid to do it: the Parthenon, Shakespeare's plays, Michelangelo's ceiling, they were all commissioned pieces. And if the person doing the commissioning wanted changes, then the artist changed it.

(Originally posted on my LiveJournal.)