In order to see some of the best art of Western civilization, you have to look up. On the ceilings of palaces and churches are sweeping scenes of the heavens, of allegories and saints and divine beings in all their magnificence—feats of technical and technological innovation, a mastery of skill coupled with a flourishing of human creativity and imagination that rivals anything invented today. Most famous of them all, perhaps, is Michelangelo’s fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Rather than a scene of heaven, the story of humanity plays out across the center panels of the ceiling, from the creation to the fall to the salvation of man, with semidivine onlookers observing from the corners. Art at its best touches our humanity, answering our deepest questions, helping us to find meaning in life. “You think, ‘What would heaven be like? If there was a heaven, what would that …