Truly Sublime-

Reflections on Rafael- The Met Exhibit in NYC- May 2026

To say the major exhibit of Raphael's work at the Metropolitan Museum is stunning is indeed an understatement- for the show of the high-Renaissance master is at once overwhelming and inspiring on many levels. The exhibit is the first comprehensive show of his work ever in America!  Quite amazing in itself that no museum has taken the initiative previously.  The show presents his work, starting with a small drawing, a self-portrait as an adolescent to greet us visitors at the entrance. And immediately behind it is a large horizontal painting titled, The Ideal City, from the Walters Museum in Baltimore, MD. That cityscape sets the stage for the Renaissance ethos of order, rationality and accomplished with consummate perspective understanding.  The exhibit allows us to see the artist evolve from his humble beginnings in a small hill town in the Marche region (east-central Italy) in Urbino to the most exalted level of artistic accomplishment in Rome. The exhibit is a fitting tribute to this artist. It is significant too that his final resting place is in the Pantheon in Rome.  

The charcoal drawing above "The Virgin and Child" from 1500 by Raphael served as study for an oil called the McIntosh Madonna. The deep shadows and sfumato show a debt to Leonardo's work.

Above- the author making a sketch from the Raphael drawing at the Met show. Taking the time to look and draw can be very rewarding.

In regards to Rafael's esteemed reputation this has been referred to as the hagiography or venerartion akin to a saint worship and even goes as far as equating him with Christ. Even though he died young at 37 there was an effort to suggest that he died at 33 as did Christ.  His self portrait with another man, shows him as long haired and  bearded in mid-maturity similar to Christ. We may think of Albrecht Durer's self portrait of about the same era- as precursor to Raphael's self portrait. Durer shows himself with beautiful long hair and his hands in the gesture of benediction.  And with all this veneration for Raphael there is the significant backlash of Pre-Raphaelite painters of the 19th century who blame Raphael for all sorts of transgressions. This school of painters sought  to establish their art and movement in an earlier era (before the high Renaissance of Raphael) with less distortion and more fidelity to nature accomplished through direct observation rather than idealization. We love these Pre-Raphaelite works but wonder if railing against Raphael was misguided. 

Speaking of backlash, the work of the Mannerist school and baroque also represented a flaunting of principles. Even more, artists like Caravaggio showed the Madonna and saints as real people in stark light. His work was found offensive by many for its inclusion of street people as models.

My own journey in the appreciation of Raphael began decades ago. I was told by a psychic,  a woman that lived in my hometown who purported to be able to read the Akashic record, that there was some connection for me to be had with Raphael.  That piqued my interest as heretofore I had not been interested in Raphael.

Above - The Virgin and Child with Raphael and Tobias. The large oils often have elaborate frames.

Part of the success and rewards of the Met show of Raphael is the inclusion of many prepartory studies like the one above. The viewer can compare and see how the ideas evolved into major altar pieces.

A personal history of revering Raphael-

This exhibit at the Met has brought back many memories of my interest in Raphael, and Urbino in particular as well as Perugia where he received his first training with Perugino and then on to Florence and Rome to culminate his amazing career. In Perugia the central pedestrian walkway is named Via Pierto Vanucci, in honor of Raphel's teacher, who is known to us today as Perugino.  

Raphel Sanzio, (1483-1520) was born in the beautiful castle town of Urbino,  the son of a painter and poet.  Urbino is where I started my interest in Italy and the Renaissance.  Back in 1992 I took a three week printmaking workshop at an art center a few miles west of Urbino at a repurposed mine.  It was La Corte della Miniera and situated at a beautiful site in the hills of the Marche.  I would occasionally take trips on a bike or with others in a car into the Urbino.  The house of Raphael is there now as is the museum and the National Gallery of Marche. A park at the top of the street past Raphaels' home there is life-sized statue of him holding his brush. Urbino is the epitome of the Renaissance as it embraced the altrusim of new learning in its architecture and in its leaders.. Over the next 30 plus years I have visited all the locations where Raphael studied and painted.  The culmination is the Vatican in Rome with the Stanze, rooms with the Frescos.

An Ambitious Exhibit

The show at the Met has facsimiles of these Stanze, but duplicated in rooms constructed to be the same size with the frescos projected on the walls.  Quite an amazing treat to show us these masterworks as the frescoes are permanently there in the Vatican.  One fresco is of The School of Athens, which could be called the epitome of the Renaissance.  It includes an amazing perspective setting with a vaulted ceiling and host of philosophers  arranged on the steps.  

The exhibit is such an astounding work of curatorial and organizational acumen that we are left in awe of the sheer accomplishment of bringing all these works together. The School of Athens painting, presents the rigor of one-point perspective done masterfully with forms of philosophers strategically arranged in a frieze-like lineup across the front.  The show is accompanied by a catalog that just arrived this week. It is truly a tome and a door stopper.  The text is engaging and revealing, not like the dry list of facts that these catalogs often present.  The catalog supports this Herculanean effort of curation and scholarship.  We are truly blessed by such a confluence.  And adding to the allure of gathering of talent of he era- Raphael's fresco was being painting about the same time as Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel- 1508-12 - just a few rooms away in the Vatican.

Above- Raphael's School of Athens- a fresco in the Stanze at the Vatican in Rome. Michelangelo is depicted seated in the front center leaning on pedestal.

But the actual works that enthrall the most are perhaps the drawings even more than the paintings- they are the most rewarding and revealing.  We see his small, tight studies in the tradition of Perugino with not too much exploration.  Then in Florence after leaving Perugino's workshop he is introduced to Leonardo's conception of a sketch as an exploration- visual thinking and study in other words. Leonardo's loose and spontaneous method loosened him up when it was needed in the early stage of planning a work.  Yet we see his well organized and highly resolved drawings done as preliminary studies for complex work with many figures. There is an Italian term that describes this quick sketch; abozzare pronto.

These wonderful studies in red chalk and charcoal of the figure and portrait are truly marvelous.  And for an artist interested in representational depictions of the nude one could not do better than to visit this show.  I was in my element.  We get to also view the influence of Leonardo in Raphael's work through the soft modeling, deep shadows, soft edges that come under the heading of two othe Italian terms, chiaroscuro and sfumato.  The former is the contrast of light and dark and sfumato is the smokey distance and blue haze of atmosphere.  Sfumato could be applied to the softened and gradual transitions of shapes and edges. 

Above- a prepatory drawing by Raphael of the Deposition of Christ. The large oil version is in the Borghese Gallery in Rome. The drawing shows the grid marks used to enlarge the study to a canvas.

There is one gallery of the exhibit that shows an ancient Roman figurative sculpture depicting the death of a man.  This multi-figure marble shows the corpse being carried by a group of mourners.  This was the influence on Raphel's now famous work of the Entombment.  It offered one of the surprises of the show, as I had never seen this connection or read of it before. It underscores the ethos of the Renaissance of plumbing the accomplishments of the ancients and resurrection the learning and the skill.

I have been anticipating this show for months and I knew it would be a must see exhibit.  Just prior to my visit,  some feedback from non-artist was less-than optimistic.  Do you have to be an artist to appreciate Raphael? I think not, but it helps. After all he is the real deal, involved in drawing and design and high purpose.   The report came from a fellow in a Plotinus philosophical study group that I attend weekly.  He was decidedly deadpan and nonplussed in regards to the Raphael show.  He found the color not to his liking and was put off by too many Madonna's.  The crowds were off putting as. well.   What to say- but Raphael's color is the culmination of great sensibility and skill. The fresco technique in itself is awesome. In fact the color in frescoes like the Galatea in the Farnese in Rome is mostly controlled hues if not leaning toward value centered color.   Yes, these blockbusters attract hordes, everyday.  And like other Met shows of this stature, the crush of people can be oppressive. Everyone gets along and we pardon ourselves when bumping together and exercise patience to get our turn to look at special paintings.    But I was not to be dissuaded.

Really pausing to study is when the rewards happen for me.  I do this by drawing from certain pieces that I find engaging.  The sculptural frieze that inspired Raphael's entombment also inspired me. It was lit really dramatically which brought out the forms/. I settled first on a large charcoal drawing.  It was rather unfinished, yet it had the soft chiaroscuro of Leonardo.  But then the marvelous painting of Baldasarre Castiglone was the real icing on the cake.  I marveled at this incredible work as I drew from it.  The subtle harmony of restrained hues, a symphony in black, ochre and white in this piece could easily place it as a pinnacle of western art.  The expression and the embodiment of truth and virtue equal the book Castglione penned make it also emblematic of the entire Renaissance ethos.   As I sketched the nuances of tones in the hat were noticed- that had heretofore been regarded as just one uniform value of black. His kind clear eyes have been noted and with good reason.

There is a remarkable aspect of art history that is associated with this portrait as well.   In 1639 this portrait came up for auction in Amsterdam along with other items from the collection of a recently deceased merchant, Lucas van Uffelen.  Rembrandt was there and he recorded the painting in a small ink sketch. This work by Raphael and work by Titian were used by Rembrandt as inspirations for poses for self portraits.   So there is a history of a special nature in regards to sketching from this work I have inserted myself into here.  This is inspiring in a number of ways.  I imagine Rembrandt standing in front of this work sketching like I did and it is truly exhilarating. 

Above - the sketch by Rembrandt done from the portrait of Baldassare Castiglione when it was at an auction in Amsterdam.

Above - The author's own sketch done from Raphael's oil of Castiglione.

Above- the author at work sketching from the Raphael oil portrait of Baldassare Castiglione. The sitter epitomized the Renaissance ethos in his book, The Art of the Courtier.

Apogee of the High Renaissance

To view examples of art the represent the culmination and best examples of the Renaissance is part of the excitement of this show. The blending of balance and stabilty with the movement, grace and dynamism is how this aesthetic could be summed up. We can this visually in many works but most illustrative would be the fresco of Galatea in the Farnesina in Rome and in a wonderfully twisting form in a drawing of the Virgin.

The pyramidal strucrture gleaned from Leonardo is at the core of this compositional approach. And when combined with the dynamic contraposto- the turning form of the human figure we see these opposites blended.

There is more to it however. And it has to do with honoring the borders as pointed by Bombach in here extensive catalog essay. This was affirming news to me, as I have often considered the four edges of the canvas or format to be essential considerations to composing. It also has to do with internal geometry and lines of the structure of figures. Leonardo encapsulated this with his penchant for expression internal emotional or mental states with gesture.

The Confluences of Perspective

The networks and influences of artists in the early 16th century in Italy as brought out in detail in the show catalog are a fascinating study.   Raphael's eagerness and hunger for learning and the way he continued to grow throughout his career is remarkable.   The perspective aspect is at the crux of the art of this era as this new technique was disseminated by the work of Piero della Francesca. His seminal book, On the Perspective of Painting from 1475 was the text that influenced generations of artists, mathematicians and architects.  Pergino's work shows the new learning and it shows up in the work of all the Renaissance artists after that. 

Above- The Ideal City- thought to be painted by Fra Carnevale. A similar painting considered a work by Piero della Francesca is in the National Gallery of Marche in Urbino. Both paintings employ a rigorous and exact one point perspective.

We take perspective as more or less a given today.   But the fervor with which the new learning was incorporated during the Renaissance is amazing.  Combining this with the high Renaissance order, symmetry and grace of design is even more enthralling. The pyramidal structure and stability of the figurative ensembles epitomized this apogee.

But When to Stop- ?

There are caveats amidts the cooing of us fans. People ocassionaly ask me how one knows when a painting is finished. It is a good question and a subjective answer. The American painter, the Late Dan Green had a check list which he would go over when nearing a completion of a painting to see if it measured up. This objectified and clarified the process

And yes there are caveats to out righ praise- he Madonnas with infant Christ can be hard to take. A little to cloying perhaps. One art historian, William Kloss, when talking about some adorable putti of Raphael's said that they were just this side of sacarin. The color comes off sometimes as too much. At the same time we marvel at the seamless and infitely soft gradations of hue and value. Truly remarkable. The catalog text reflected some of these misgivnings as well.

So in regards to the preference for process of finish here is an interesting quote from the catalog.

Of the ancient sources, Pliny the Elder's Notural History ws then circulating widely in the Italian translation by Cristoforo Landino, a copy of which Leonardo himself possesed in his library. It included praise for the quick creative work of the great artist of antiquity, for example Parrhaisis's illustrative pen sketches, a swiftly executed but virtuosic painting of a boy by Pausias and incomplete Venus of Kos by Apelles that was more admired as a sketch than as a finished form. ; by contrast Pliny criticized the paintings of Protogenes as being too finished.

The preference for finish or process is an endless one and a personal call at the end of the day. Still this is the appeal of the wonderful drawings. They have the essence of the new Renaissance ideals without becoming over rought. The drawing and painting below allow us to compare for ourselves the process between conception in the drawing and the final reaizaton in the painting

The drawing and painting above of Saint Catherine of Siena, show the devopment from study to studo work. The poses, of twisting contraposto are the culmination of the high renaissance ideals. We marvel at the highly articulated modeling in the garments and flesh of the paintng. And the beauty and spontaneity of the sketch is obvious. The italian term, protonezza di spirito or spontaneity and immediacy of the sketch is apt here.

The art of influence

Raphael's study and incorporation of the techniques of Leonardo and Raphael is an amazing record of influence.   His networking and collaboration with other artists is noteworthy too. His paintings with Pintoricchio in Siena show Raphael as a bridge builder.  The buzz of artists in Siena at this time was all about the new drawings of Leonardo and Michelangelo for their proposed murals in the hall of the Cinquecento.  It was a whirlwind of enthusiasm with artists flocking to see these new works and making drawings and sketches from these preliminary studies. Raphael was understandably caugt up in the interest and left his Siena work to view the new work.

The show at the Met and catalog provide a rich and rewarding experience that presents a wide-ranging show of a singular artist and his times.  It is an exhibit to grow with, and admire representational painting at a high point of discovery.  We can easily be swept up in that particular elation of visiting Renaissance art known as Stendahl's Syndrome- which is being overcome with swooning and even rapture at viewing such art.