Raphael at the Met
The Met’s blockbuster 'Raphael and the Renaissance of Divine Beauty' is getting fresh praise for humanizing the mythic painter and rethinking his legacy — critics called the curation immersive and revelatory. Reviews published March 26 highlight the exhibition’s scale and new interpretive frames for Raphael’s place in Renaissance art. ( )
The Met’s full title for the show is Raphael: Sublime Poetry, and it is on view at the museum from March 29 through June 28, 2026. (metmuseum.org) The presentation assembles more than 200 objects from around the world, including over 170 of Raphael’s drawings alongside paintings, tapestries and decorative arts. (metmuseum.org) Among the headline loans are The Virgin and Child with Infant Saint John the Baptist (the “Alba Madonna”) from the National Gallery of Art and Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione from the Louvre. (metmuseum.org) The exhibition was organized by Carmen Bambach, the Met curator who led the museum’s 2017 Michelangelo show and who has been assembling this Raphael retrospective over roughly seven years. (artnews.com) The organizers say the Met presentation is a single-site event that will not travel after its New York run. (artnews.com) The project’s presenting sponsor is Morgan Stanley, with major support from Kenneth C. Griffin and other donors, and the Met is publishing a fully illustrated catalogue for the exhibition. (metmuseum.org) The Alba Madonna will be shown with preparatory studies on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Lille, highlighting Raphael’s working process. (smithsonianmag.com) An audio guide for the exhibition is narrated by actress Isabella Rossellini and credits Carmen Bambach as the show’s curator. (metmuseum.org)
