Met Unveils Landmark Raphael Exhibition Exploring Motherhood, Loss and Renaissance Genius
NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Museum of Art will open Raphael: Sublime Poetry on March 29, 2026, marking the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the Italian Renaissance master Raffaello di Giovanni Santi (1483–1520) ever mounted in the United States.
Curated by Carmen C. Bambach, the Marica F. and Jan T. Vilcek Curator of Drawings and Prints, the show assembles more than 200 works—including 33 paintings, 142 drawings, tapestries and decorative arts—drawn from major public and private collections across Europe and America. Many pieces have never been exhibited together before. The exhibition traces Raphael’s career from his formative years in the cultured court of Urbino, through his productive time in Florence, to his final decade as a leading artist at the papal court in Rome, where he died at age 37.
While Raphael is celebrated for his harmonious compositions and idealized Madonnas, the exhibition moves beyond traditional views by placing these tender images in their full social and historical context. It highlights the harsh realities of motherhood and high infant and maternal mortality rates in Renaissance Italy. A rarely loaned Book of Wax from a convent in Urbino, detailing funeral expenses for Raphael’s own mother and newborn sister who died in childbirth when he was eight, adds poignant personal resonance to the artist’s depictions of maternal affection.
The title “Sublime Poetry” reflects Raphael’s lyrical approach to art and his deep engagement with poetic traditions, including a loaned unfinished manuscript from the Vatican Library. The show also examines his innovative use of nude female models, his entrepreneurial management of a large studio, and recent technical discoveries that reveal more about his working methods.
Raphael: Sublime Poetry runs through June 28, 2026, at The Met Fifth Avenue and will not travel. General admission tickets, which include the exhibition, go on sale in mid-December. Member preview days are scheduled for March 24 and 26–28.
