Re:A brief history of why artists are no longer making a liv...
by microtherion on Thursday March 21, 2019 @08:10PM
(#19458579)
Pretty sure the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was not done as a volunteer graffiti job either.
I would challenge you almost precisely the opposite. The vast majority of the "great art" was in fact done for money.
For example, walk through the Parthenon and its museum, most of the art was commissioned.
Look at the wall murals of Pompeii--again, done for hire.
I can go on and on and on.
Art not done for hire is almost exclusively a very new thing brought about by industrialization giving us enough surplus that people have enough spare time to specialize in something other than their job.