New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is set to host the first US show on Raphael from March to June next year.
    With loans from the world's leading museums, the Met is preparing to shine a spotlight on the genius of Raphael: 200 of the most important drawings, paintings, and tapestries created by this central figure of the Italian Renaissance will be the focus of Raphael: Sublime Poetry, an exhibition scheduled by the museum on Fifth Avenue from March 29 to June 28, 2026.
    The exhibition will be the first monographic exhibition in the United States and will explore the entire life and career of the artist from Urbino: from his early days in the Marche region, where his father was a court painter, to his Florentine years when Raphael began to establish himself as an equal with Leonardo and Michelangelo, up to his final decade spent at the papal court.
    Alongside the most celebrated masterpieces, rarely seen treasures will be displayed, revealing the painter's exceptional creative power.
    "This unprecedented exhibition will offer a groundbreaking look at Raphael's genius and legacy," said Met Director Max Hollein, emphasizing the difficulties of the undertaking.
    "Visitors will have an exceptionally rare opportunity to admire his creative range through some of the most iconic and difficult-to-lend works from around the world, many never before reunited," h said.
    Among the highlights will be the Alba Madonna from the National Gallery of Art alongside preparatory drawings from the Lille museum, and the portrait by Baldassarre Castiglione, now in the Louvre, widely considered one of the greatest of the Renaissance.
    Among the institutions that have opened their collections are the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, the Galleria Borghese, the Gallerie Nazionali Barberini Corsini, the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino and the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, the Pinacoteca di Bologna, the Fondazione Brescia Musei, the Uffizi, and the Vatican Museums.

They also include the Albertina in Vienna, the British Museum, the Ashmolean in Oxford, and the Prado, as well as the Louvre and the National Gallery.
    The exhibition took seven years to put together.
    "It was an extraordinary opportunity to redefine my understanding of this monumental artist," said Carmen Bambach, curator of the Department of Drawings and Prints, who has previously brought drawings by Leonardo and Michelangelo to the Met.
    The exhibition will be organized chronologically, following the artist's life and career, with thematic sections dedicated to the development of his ideas and iconography.
    The results of the most recent scientific discoveries will be included, while special attention will be paid to the representation of women, from the pioneering use of nude models to the sensitive portraits of the Madonna and Child.

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