„Rafael: Sublime Poetry“, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from March 29 to June 28, 2026, will be the first comprehensive, international loan exhibition in the United States on Raphael (Raffaello di Giovanni Santi; 1483–1520), considered one of the greatest artists of all time. This landmark exhibition will explore the full breadth of his life and career, from his origins in Urbino to his prolific years in Florence, where he began to emerge as a peer to Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, to his final decade at the papal court in Rome.
Image above: Rafael, Madonna and Child with St John the Baptist in a landscape (The Alba Madonna), from 1509–1511, Oil on canvas (transferred from wood) (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Andrew W. Mellon Collection (1937.1.24). Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington)
Bringing together more than 200 works, including over 170 of Raphael’s most important drawings, paintings, tapestries, and decorative arts from public and private collections around the world, the exhibition will offer a fresh perspective on this defining figure of the Italian Renaissance, presenting his renowned masterpieces alongside rarely seen treasures to reveal an extraordinarily creative mind.
The exhibition traces Rafael’s artistic development from his beginnings in Urbino to his final years in Rome. It opens with his early training under his father, Giovanni Santi, and his apprenticeship with Pietro Perugino, whose influence shaped his earliest works. It then explores how the young artist established his own artistic identity through altarpieces and devotional paintings created across various regions of Italy.
During his time in Florence, Rafael closely studied the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, incorporating their monumentality, expressive power, and technical innovations into his own practice. His celebrated Madonna and Child paintings and portraits reveal remarkable humanity, compositional harmony, and psychological sensitivity.
The exhibition reaches its climax with Rafael’s arrival in Rome in 1508, where he became the favored artist of Popes Julius II and Leo X and created the renowned Vatican frescoes, securing his status as the most influential painter of his time. The show includes preparatory drawings, monumental commissions, tapestry designs for the Sistine Chapel, and works produced with his workshop, highlighting his extraordinary productivity.
Finally, the exhibition examines his role as an architect and his engagement with classical antiquity, demonstrating how Rome transformed Rafael’s art and how he, in turn, reshaped the artistic image of the city, earning the title “prince of painters.”
WHEN?
Exhibition dates: Sunday, 29. March until Sunday, 28. June 2026
WHERE?
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 5th Ave, New York
NY 10028
USA
