A previously unseen side of Raphael is now awaiting visitors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. With “Raphael: Sublime Poetry”, the Met has mounted the first major retrospective in the United States dedicated to the Renaissance master, tracing his artistic journey from his early years in Urbino to the transformative period he spent in Rome, where he helped redefine the visual language of European art.
The exhibition brings together more than 170 works, assembled through an extraordinary collaboration with some of Italy’s most important museums and cultural institutions. Exceptional loans from the Uffizi Galleries, Galleria Borghese, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, and the National Gallery of Umbria create a sweeping narrative of Raphael’s development, influence and enduring legacy.
One of the exhibition’s highlights is the return to public view of the Banner of the Holy Trinity, newly restored through a joint Italian-American conservation project. Its inclusion gives the show not only scholarly weight but also a sense of rediscovery, offering audiences the chance to engage with a lesser-known but significant work in Raphael’s career.
The exhibition opening also served as an opportunity to reaffirm the long-standing relationship between the Met and Italy’s Ministry of Culture, a partnership built not only on loans and research, but also on a shared commitment to the protection of cultural heritage. That commitment has also been reflected in the museum’s role in the repatriation of artworks illegally exported from Italy.
More than a blockbuster exhibition, “Raphael: Sublime Poetry” stands as a testament to a transatlantic collaboration that continues to speak in the universal language of art. For New York audiences, it is a rare chance to encounter Raphael not simply as an icon of the Renaissance, but as a living force in the history of imagination, beauty and invention.