More than 500 years after his death, Raphael continues to enthrall new generations. Though he is best known for world-famous masterpieces like , the Renaissance master produced over 500 works that are scattered across the globe. Next year, more than 200 will travel to the Met in New York for the first-ever comprehensive U.S. exhibition dedicated to Raphael.
“The seven-year journey of putting together this exhibition has been an extraordinary chance to reframe my understanding of this monumental artist,” said curator Carmen Bambach, of the Met’s drawings and prints department. “It is a thrilling opportunity to engage with his unique artistic personality through the visual power, intellectual depth, and tenderness of his imagery.”
Raphael, (1512–13). Photo: VCG Wilson / Corbis via Getty Images.
Visitors to “Raphael: Sublime Poetry” will be taken on journey from the artist’s early life in Urbino to his triumphant emergence as one of the greats of the High Renaissance in Florence. There, he competed against rivals like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo for the most prestigious commissions before moving to the papal court in Rome, where he led a busy workshop in realizing hugely ambitious projects, including the Raphael Rooms at the Vatican. His prolific career was cut tragically short in 1520, when he died of an illness at the age of 37.
The landmark exhibition will open at the Met’s Fifth Avenue location on March 29, 2026, running through June 28, 2026. It will feature some of Raphael’s more celebrated achievements alongside much rarer, lesser known pieces, providing a sweeping insight into every element of his varied practice. Audiences will appreciate the breadth, clarity, and harmony of his vision thanks to a wealth of preparatory sketches, large-scale paintings, tapestries, and decorative objects.
Raphael, Self portrait (1506–08). Firenze, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Galleria delle Statue e delle Pitture. Gabinetto fotografico delle Gallerie degli Uffizi – Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e del Turismo.
Incorporated into the show’s chronological structure are a series of overarching themes that will unite its treasures and demonstrate the uniqueness of Raphael’s ideas. Rich historical context will piece together the cultural and intellectual worlds that the artist inhabited in Rome and Florence, as well as his notable contributions to the debates of his day.
“Visitors will have an exceptionally rare opportunity to experience the breathtaking range of Raphael’s creative genius through some of the artist’s most iconic and seldom-loaned works from around the globe–many never before shown together,” promised the Met’s director Max Hollein.
Raphael, (c. 1511). Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Among the highlights will be , one of the paintings that will have traveled the shortest distance from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. This painted tondo from around 1511 has moved between distinguished European collections, including those of the Spanish Dukes of Alba and Nicolas I of Russia, who passed it on to the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. It is exemplary for its idealized, classical interpretation of the gentle Madonna, and will be reunited with preparatory drawings that now belong to the Museum of Fine Arts in Lille, France.
More artworks have been loaned from a long list of leading international museums, including the the British Museum and National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Galleria Borghese and Vatican Museums in Rome, the Uffizi in Florence, the Prado in Madrid, the Albertina in Vienna, and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt.
Curator Carmen Bambach previously worked on the celebrated blockbuster exhibition “Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer” at the Met in 2017. The once-in-a-lifetime offering pulled in huge visitor numbers, over 700,000, making it one of the museum’s all time most visited exhibitions.
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
