The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York recently announced that "Raphael: Sublime Poetry" will be held from March 29 to June 28, 2026. It will bring together more than 200 masterpieces from more than 20 public and private collections around the world. From radiant and magnificent paintings to rare sketches and exquisite tapestries, it will allow audiences to immerse themselves in the creative process of one of the most influential artists in Western art history and take a glimpse of the talent of this Renaissance master.
Because many of the works have never been presented together in the same exhibition, this exhibition becomes an "extremely rare opportunity" to explore the depth and breadth of Raphael's art. This will also be the first large-scale exhibition in the United States to comprehensively display the outstanding artistic achievements of Raphael, one of the three great masters of the Renaissance.
Raphael, Self-Portrait (Unknown if the Met will exhibit it)
"How gracious Heaven sometimes is when it gathers in one individual its innumerable treasures, those graces and rare gifts which are usually bestowed upon different individuals over the course of ages," the Italian Renaissance artist and art historian Vasari once marveled. In his seminal work, The Lives of the Great Men (first published in 1550), Vasari called the Urbino-born Raphael "a mortal god among us."
Raphael, Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist (Madonna of Alba), 1509–1511, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Raffaello di Giovanni Santi (1483–1520), better known as Raphael, achieved remarkable accomplishments in painting, design, and architecture in his brief 37 years, and centuries after his death, his work remains regarded as the pinnacle of artistic perfection.
The son of a painter and a poet, Raphael mingled with the most prominent writers and thinkers of his time in Rome, captivating his contemporaries and future generations with his unique poetic sensibility. The Met's exhibition will chart his life and artistic journey, from his beginnings in Urbino, to his rise to prominence in Florence, alongside Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, and finally, to his prolific decade at the Vatican. The exhibition will also feature special sections—including the latest scientific research, sketches, and an in-depth exploration of his depictions of women—that offer a fresh perspective on Raphael's artistic practice.
This is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's next major Renaissance exhibition, following last fall's landmark exhibition, "Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350." The exhibition will bring together works from over twenty public and private collections worldwide, including the Vatican Museums, the British Museum in London, the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Raphael, The Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia (with Saint Paul, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Augustine, and Mary Magdalene), 1515–1516, National Gallery of Bologna
The exhibition, seven years in the making, was curated by Carmen C. Bambach, a scholar of Italian Renaissance art in the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who previously curated the Met’s major exhibitions “Leonardo da Vinci: The Master of Drawing” (2003) and “Michelangelo: Extraordinary Painter and Designer” (2017–2018).
"The Michelangelo Exhibition" attracted over 700,000 visitors, becoming one of the museum's most popular exhibitions in history. After the exhibition closed, Bambach immersed himself in the complex process of preparing it. "The seven-year journey to prepare this exhibition has allowed me to reconstruct my understanding of this great artist. It has been an exciting opportunity to experience his unique artistic personality through the visual power, intellectual depth, and tenderness of his images," Bambach said in a statement.
Raphael, Heads and Hands of Two Apostles, 1519–1520, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Despite the passage of centuries, Raphael's masterful blend of clarity, beauty, and harmony remains enduring. Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Max Hollein said in a statement that many of these works have never before been presented together in a single exhibition, making this exhibition "an exceptionally rare opportunity to explore the depth and breadth of Raphael's art."
Raphael, Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, 1514–1516, © RMN – Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY
Masterpieces on display include Raphael's oil portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (1514–1516), which captures the Italian diplomat's spirit in vivid and lifelike detail under soft and intimate lighting. The tender Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist (Madonna of Alba) (circa 1509–1511), presented alongside preparatory drawings for the painting from the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, France, showcases Raphael's mastery of color and compositional balance. Also on display are Lady with a Unicorn (1505–1506) from the Borghese Gallery in Rome and The Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia (with Saint Paul, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Augustine, and Mary Magdalene) (circa 1515–1516) from the National Gallery of Bologna.
Raphael, Lady with a Unicorn, 1505–1506, Galleria Borghese
The Met owns three works by Raphael in its own collection, most notably the altarpiece Madonna and Child with Saints (circa 1504), created for the Convent of Sant'Antonio in Perugia. Also in its collection is the panel from the altarpiece, The Agony in Gethsemane (1504), and a later drawing, Lucrezia (circa 1508–1510).
Raphael, Madonna and Child with Saints (altarpiece), circa 1504, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
It is reported that "The Most Beautiful Poetry" will examine Raphael's works from the perspective of his "unique artistic personality"; with particular attention to Raphael's depiction of women (from his first use of female nude models in Western art history to his gentle and delicate images of the Madonna and Child) and combined with the scientific discoveries brought about by the latest scientific means, it provides the audience with a rare opportunity to personally experience this master genius who shaped the course of art history.
Raphael, Lucrezia, circa 1508–1510, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Museum of Art confirmed that the exhibition will not travel. The last Raphael exhibition of similar scale in the United States was "Raphael and the Americas," held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1983, which coincided with the 500th anniversary of the artist's birth and featured over 100 works.
In his account of Raphael’s brief but highly productive life, Vasari celebrates not only his perfect embodiment of Renaissance virtues but also his enviable social skills—a talent that earned him the admiration of friends, patrons, and artists and assistants both inside and outside the studio. “Nature created him as a gift to the world,” Vasari wrote.
Raphael, The Agony in Gethsemane (one of the panels for the base of the altarpiece at the Monastery of Sant'Antonio in Perugia), 1504. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
