Raphael - A painter inspired by a city which looked like a palace: Documentary - Raphael, the lord of the arts (2017)

A life of arts well lived by the time of his death at 37 years of age, that's something mind boggling. There may have been very few who have lived their life that full in that trajectory in the modern times, may be Jean-Michele Basquiat is someone that reminds me of Raphael when I try to remember anyone as prolific.

I didn't know much about Raphael before yesterday except that he was a character in that movie "The Agony and the Ecstasy" about inspiration story of Michelangelo painting the ceiling of Sistine Chapel even though he was more of an expert on Sculpture than on painting. The character of Raphael shown in that movie was not much telling about the greatness of Raphael. However, just look at the entire work of Sistine chapel in perspective and you would know that while Michelangelo painted the frescos of ceiling and the single wall of the chapel; Raphael painted the three remaining high walls of the chapel. If you consider his entire life's work, this work of Raphael may represent less than 1 % of his entire life's work even though even the work here looks huge one. What could have inspired this artist to have become so prolific creatively? That was what intrigued me about this artist of the high renaissance period of which we all probably of the two great masters Leonardo and Michelangelo but it seems Raphael is only mentioned in the distant third as the masters of high renaissance.

The veil from my eyes are now lifted and I have learnt to respect the art and inspiration of Raphael even more than whatever I have learnt of Leonardo's past about someone who was born and raised in a natural countryside and about Michelangelo's past of getting involved in stone quarries since childhood. For Raphael all his inspiration came from a city he was born in called Urbino. Urbino it is said is a city which looks like a huge palace in itself- filled with great architecture, art and beauty. A child raised in such a city, now how could Raphael not be inspired to be prolific every moment. It must have been something to grow up there inspired with the setting.

We can all as humans probably remember our environment as we grow up, the people we interact, the scenes we see, the games we play and the education, craft and art we learn in that environment. I remember my own environment which inspired me so much as I was growing up that I am still inspired and it is my purpose to inspire and be inspired for that simple reason and which I am again doing with what I write with these article- things that inspire me and which might inspire the readers too. It was that simple thing that Raphael was doing in his short life too, translating his childhood life inspiration from the city of Urbino into drawing great frescos and paintings in Florence and Rome and even sort of overshadowing the great masters Leonardo and Michelangelo with the sheer volume of works which all represent not just quantity but masterful quality that represented the high renaissance.

We here at Voyageride, are inspired by our backgrounds and our past so much to inspire and empower our friends who come to us for that simple reason. Our context here is of being born in the country with the highest hills and mountains of the world filled with nature and also with culture that represents sort of a hidden Shangri-La. You can watch the Marvel movie Dr. Strange just to see what our country Nepal represents and what we are ready to offer the world as did Raphael by being raised in Urbino. We are living in our own Urbino ready to be prolific as Raphael to show our work to the world.