Raphael (sublime Poetry)

By (author) Bambach Carmen C.
Description:

The definitive survey of one of the masters of Italian Renaissance art, featuring groundbreaking new research by a leading expert on Raphael’s life and work
 
Raphael (Raffaello di Giovanni Santi; 1483–1520) is unquestionably one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance. Despite living only thirty-seven years, he quickly emerged as a peer to both Leonardo and his avowed rival, Michelangelo. Raphael: Sublime Poetry spans his short but spectacular life and career, from his early training amid the culture of his native Urbino, through his prolific years in Florence, to his final, magnificent decade at the papal court in Rome. Though Raphael is best known for his meteoric success as a painter, draftsman, designer, and architect, this catalogue highlights his equal accomplishments as a humanist, antiquarian, and poet.

Carmen C. Bambach offers fresh perspectives on the beloved artist, reconsidering his well-known masterpieces and uncovering the importance of rarely seen treasures. The publication also sheds new light on Raphael’s relationship with women by identifying previously unrecognized models for his portraits and discussing the agency of his female patrons. Bringing together more than two hundred of Raphael’s drawings, paintings, tapestries, and decorative arts from public and private collections around the world, this catalogue is rich in archival discoveries and firsthand technical analyses. Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, it is the definitive text on the artist’s life, art, and enduring legacy.

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press

Exhibition Schedule:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(March 29–June 28, 2026)

Review quote:
“The Met’s Raphael exhibition is a feat. . . . So, too, is the catalog. . . . 400 pages of (mostly) chronological overview of this prince among painters. I came away with a new appreciation for his hometown pride, his hustler attitude, and the life story that underpins his unparalleled depictions of mother and child.”—Lisa Yin Zhang, Hyperallergic

“Raphael’s use of female models in Rome is just one manifestation of his interest in women and we should be grateful to Carmen C. Bambach, author of the catalogue and one of the curators of the exhibition, for digging out the scattered references to women in the scholarship on the artist.”—Shiela Barker, Apollo


Biographical note:
Carmen C. Bambach is Marica F. and Jan T. Vilcek Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.