If I had known how much I would enjoy the Met’s Raphael
exhibit I would have headed over to see it sooner.
I had already seen most of the paintings that they
highlighted in their publicity for the show in the various museums they had
come from. (Uffizi, Borghese Gallery, Louvre)
And on our recent visit to Rome we spent a day in the Vatican Museum, primarily so I could see “The School of Athens” at my leisure. After that, I thought I pretty much had it covered.
But this show includes several studies for “The School of
Athens.” – including this one. Wow!
And while I may have seen some of the paintings before, I had
not seen the drawings which are so fragile that they probably aren’t displayed
much even in their home museums. (Louvre, British National Gallery, Vatican)
I was simply blown away by how beautiful his drawings are.
His mastery of perspective applies to faces and hands as much
as buildings. I never thought about that
before.
The show does a wonderful job matching drawings -
with finished pieces when it can. (Check out that exquisite perspective.)
And when it can’t, it shows a photo from the final piece to
provide context. Very cool.
As I looked at my photos to select the ones I wanted to post
in this blog, I realized how much I
wanted to be able to study these drawings at length, preferably without the
crowds. Which gave me an idea.
So, I went over last night at 7:00p.m. when most people were
heading off to their Knicks watch parties. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that much
less crowded. I guess other people had
the same idea. But I did get the extra
time I craved.
The exhibit wraps up on June 28th and will not be
traveling.
Here’s a link to photos from the Michelangelo exhibit…
https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2018/02/michelangelo-at-met.html
Some from Alice Neel…
https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2021/04/alice-neel-met.html
And a wonderful kimono exhibit…
https://pj-studio.blogspot.com/2023/02/kimonos-at-met.html
Cheers!
PJ
© 2026 PJ Lehrer
