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Raphael finally visits the Met — after a very long wait
By
Walter Wuthmann
Published Mar 24, 2026
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By
Walter Wuthmann
Published Mar 24, 2026
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In his 37 years of life, Raffaello di Giovanni Santi, who would come to be known simply as Raphael, rose from painting altarpieces in countryside churches to grand frescoes in the Vatican palace, shaping the Italian Renaissance — and the whole of Western art — along the way.
Now many of those works can be seen in the United States for the first time in “Raphael: Sublime Poetry,” an exhibition that opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Sunday and runs through June.
“This is not only a truly major exhibition, but quite honestly, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Raphael in that way in the United States,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Max Hollein said. “It is not going to happen again in this generation and the next.”
The exhibit features more than 230 works from more than 60 museums, galleries and private collections. They include the young painter’s first independent commission as well as “The Virgin and Child with Infant Saint John the Baptist in a Landscape (The Alba Madonna),” widely considered a High Renaissance masterpiece.
Lead curator Carmen Bambach said some of her favorite pieces are not the blockbusters, but rather Raphael’s sketches and studies.
Those rougher works convey “a privileged feeling of a glimpse over the artist's shoulder,” Bambach said. “We can witness him close up as 500 years peel away in that intimate act of contemplation and we get into his mind as he created sublime compositions.”
"The Miraculous Draft of the Fishes," a tapestry by Raphael.
Raphael
The exhibition is laid out chronologically, from Raphael’s early years in Urbino to his time in Florence and the papal court in Rome. The galleries are painted a cool blue, giving the impression of wandering through a series of dimly-lit chapels.
Because Raphael’s Vatican frescoes cannot travel, a bare white room near the end of the exhibit is fitted with projectors that cycle through some of the artist’s most famous works, allowing museumgoers to walk through and view the images at scale.
The exhibition concludes with three monumental tapestries acquired by King Philip II of Spain which Bambach said have never been shown outside of Madrid.
“Raphael: Sublime Poetry” is now open for member previews. It opens to the public March 29 and will run through June 28.
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Walter Wuthmann
Walter Wuthmann is a reporter covering public safety and the legal system.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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