Inspiration
My apologies for using such a cliché image speaking of creation, right at the beginning, but this specific image is a key element in the steps of development. Trust me.
It is not known if Raphael was lazy or Raimondi had a tight deadline, but the figure of Adam by Michelangelo ends up in the composition (find Waldo).
Obviously, the engraving being pressed, the orientation of Adam is flipped from left to right.
Inspired by Renaissance masterpieces, for this work Manet borrows the group on the right from Raphael's The Judgment of Paris. Automatically, Michelangelo's Adam is included.
The inspiration for mood and clothes (mostly the lack of it) is based on Le Concert Champêtre by Titian. Only that social standards were a bit different after a few hundred years and the work is controversial for its time.
A relatively well-known image, an iconic work in the art world, famous mostly for being rejected by the Salon jury of 1863, later, in the same year being mocked at the Salon des Refusés. Now celebrated as one of the first modern art work.
For an art student this image is imprinted on the mind, much like a tattoo, something that never washes off. It is set at close proximity to Michelangelo's scene of creation.
Naturally, Manet's work has inspired later artists to create personal interpretations, such as Claude Monet or Pablo Picasso (who's variations on the subject includes also sculptures), but the inpiration was mostly limited to the subject, and the results are very far to trace back to Manet's intentions. For Monet was only an occasion to challenge Manet with his "connaissance" in outdoor paintings, especially in filtered sunlight, since Manet was criticized for his flat/studio lightnings. Picasso, well, we all know Picasso. He kept the title and blow up everything else.
While the original innovation in the academic view is critical, in this context a very creative approach may be off track, so the focus must be on a more direct inspiration. Once famous, explicit remakes of the composition was inevitable. The image was replicated, imitated and placed in every visual media, from print to movies, by various methods, using the same title as their inspiration. Below are just two results from a very quick search on the subject (the inspiration is still active for contemporary artists, no problem).
So far, nothing impressive, different techniques, same composition, level of clothes and more or less the same facial hair. The added value is either small or non-existent, and relies on a nostalgic mirror image of an already popular work.
Until one hits you in the most unexpected way.
