The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will open a landmark exhibition dedicated to Renaissance master Raphael in 2026. Titled "Raphael: Sublime Poetry," the show runs from March 29 to June 28 and will be the first major Raphael retrospective ever mounted in the United States. Curated by Carmen Bambach, the exhibition brings together 200 works including paintings, drawings, tapestries, and decorative arts, with loans from major museums worldwide such as the Louvre, the Uffizi, the Prado, and the Vatican Museums. Key loans include the Louvre's "Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione" and the Galleria Borghese's "Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn."
This exhibition matters because it fills a significant gap in U.S. art history programming—no American museum has ever staged a comprehensive Raphael retrospective. Following the Met's acclaimed 2017 Michelangelo show and last fall's "Siena: The Rise of Painting," this exhibition continues the museum's commitment to Italian Renaissance scholarship. The show's unprecedented scope, including seldom-loaned works from international collections, offers a rare opportunity for American audiences to engage with Raphael's full career, from his early Urbino period through his Roman papal commissions, and promises to reshape contemporary understanding of the artist's legacy.