A religious painting of the Madonna and Child, with the Madonna wearing a red dress and holding the infant Jesus, who is partially naked, against a scenic landscape background.

Raphael; Sublime Poetry at the Met, New York

Raphael: Sublime Poetry is the first comprehensive exhibition on Raffaello ever held in the United States, seven years in the making, bringing together more than 200 works from the Louvre, the Uffizi, the Vatican Museums, and collections across the world. Many of these works have never been seen outside Europe before. It is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from March 29 to June 28, 2026. This was one of the exhibitions I was most excited to see in 2026, and it did not disappoint.

A religious painting with a central scene of the Madonna and Child, surrounded by saints and angels, set in an ornate wooden frame and displayed against a deep blue background in a museum.
A classical painting depicting a scene from a biblical or historical event, with numerous figures dressed in colorful, flowing garments engaged in a ceremonial activity near a colonnade, with architectural details and a cityscape in the background.
Painting of a woman with a crown holding a glass of wine and a palm branch, standing outdoors with a landscape background inside a gold frame.
Painting of a city square with classical buildings, columns, statues, and a fountain, seen through a frame with gold trim.
Painting of Madonna and Child surrounded by angels and saints in an ornate gilded frame.
A religious painting depicting the biblical scene of Jesus Christ's body after the crucifixion, lying on the ground with a man in red and blue garments attending to him, surrounded by a landscape with trees and mountains, framed with ornate gold deco
Religious painting depicting Jesus Christ on the cross with three women praying below, set outdoors with trees and hills in the background.
A woman with dark hair tied in a ponytail, wearing a black jacket and carrying a teal handbag, is looking at a portrait of a woman dressed in historical attire, in a museum with dark blue walls.
A pencil drawing of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus, with a landscape background, framed with a decorative gold frame.
A classical painting depicting a nude woman with long curly hair, standing outdoors near a swan. In the background, there is a landscape with trees, a castle on a hill, and a cloudy sky. Small cherubs are at her feet, one whispering to another.
A painting of Jesus Christ with a crown of thorns, shown with a halo, holding his side with a wound, and wearing a red cloth, inside a gold ornate frame.
A framed pencil sketch of a woman with long hair, wearing a dress with puffed sleeves and a low neckline, displayed against a dark wall.
A religious painting depicting the Annunciation, with the angel Gabriel on the left and the Virgin Mary on the right, set in a classical architectural background with columns and arches.
A woman observing a large framed Renaissance-style painting in an art museum. The painting depicts a seated woman with children and an older man reading a book nearby. The gallery wall is dark with informational plaques beside the artwork.
Ancient Greek marble relief sculpture depicting the scene of the Lamentation of Christ, with figures mourning over the body of Jesus.
Wooden sculpture of Madonna and Child, with Madonna holding the child close to her chest, both with somber expressions, framed by a carved wooden border.
A religious painting of the Madonna and Child set in an ornate wooden frame with columns and decorative details.
Religious painting of the Madonna and Child with a landscape background, encased in a decorative gold frame.
A painting of the Madonna and Child, with the Madonna holding a book and wearing a blue robe, and the Child holding a cross. The background features a landscape with mountains and a lake, set within an ornate gold frame.
A painting depicting the Madonna and Child with two angels and a saint. An individual dressed in 16th-century attire is crouching in front of the painting, peering into the frame, and dressed in a beige dress with a pink shawl. A lion-shaped sculptur
Religious painting of a woman with long brown hair, wearing a green and red dress with white sleeves, a gold necklace with a cross, and a gold headband, against a dark background.
Religious painting of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus, surrounded by ornate gold frame, flanked by two young boys, with candles in the background.
A portrait painting of a woman with light skin and long, wavy light brown hair, holding a small lion cub, set against a landscape background with blue skies and mountains, encased in an ornate gold frame.
A painting depicting a religious scene with a woman, a man, and a child. The woman, holding the child, has a halo and a veil. The man also has a halo and is looking down at the child. The scene appears intimate and tender, with the child reaching out
A painting depicting five figures, including two women and three men, dressed in historical clothing, with musical instruments scattered at their feet, and a cloudy sky in the background.
Painting of a woman with dark hair, wearing a striped head covering, holding her bare chest with one hand, framed in an ornate gold frame, displayed against a dark background.
A religious painting depicting the Virgin Mary, baby Jesus, and angels with halos, set indoors with figures in the background.
Religious painting depicting the resurrection of Jesus Christ, with Christ rising from the dead surrounded by angels and saints, using dark backgrounds and vibrant colors.
A framed sketch of a man with curly hair and a beard, displayed on a dark wall.
A religious painting featuring Jesus Christ with children, angels, and animals in a surreal sky setting.
A religious mural depicting Jesus Christ crucified, surrounded by a group of people including apostles or followers, set in a landscape with trees and buildings in the background.
A classical religious painting of the Madonna and Child, with a landscape background and ornate framed border.
A framed sketch of a woman's profile with detailed hair, labeled with artist and date information.

(Note: not all paintings shown above are by Raphael)

People viewing Leonardo da Vinci's painting 'The Mona Lisa' in a museum.
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Growing up in Italy, I studied Raffaello at school the way you study someone whose work you have always known, so present in the culture that you almost stop seeing it. Seeing it in person at the Met was a different experience entirely.

The elegance of the forms. The softness of the figures. The harmony of everything, color, composition, light, working together so effortlessly as if it could not have been any other way. There is a quality to his work that is immediately calming and immediately transporting. You step in front of a painting and the world outside it goes quiet.

What stayed with me most were the figures, the women, but not only them. The Portrait of Bindo Altoviti stopped me for a long time. A young man, graceful and completely at ease, turning his head back toward you. There is something about the way Raffaello painted people, that softness, that idealized grace, that is hard to look away from. It is not realistic in the way we think of realism today. It is something more like a dream of what people could look like, refined, serene, perfectly themselves.

That quality is perhaps most visible in the Madonna and Child paintings and the portraits of women. There is something almost fairy tale about the way Raffaello painted women, an idealized grace that feels gentle rather than remote, tender rather than untouchable. The Portrait of a Young Woman with a Unicorn, which I remembered vividly from school, was even more striking in person. She is so poised, so perfectly composed, so beautiful that she barely seems real. And yet something about her feels completely human, the way she holds the small creature, the directness of her gaze.

The Alba Madonna stopped me too. That soft circular composition, the three figures so close together, the blue of Mary's mantle. What I didn't know until visiting the exhibition is that Raphael built that image of idealized motherhood from a very ordinary moment, using a young male assistant in his workshop as the model for the Virgin. The most tender, ethereal painting was grounded in something completely human. That detail changed how I saw the whole room.

Seeing his work in person reminded me why Raffaello has stayed with people for five hundred years. It is not complicated. It simply asks you to look, and when you do, it gives you something back.