Art Eyewitness Essay: The Raphael and Michelangelo Exhibits at the Met

Art Eyewitness Essay:

Raphael & Michelangelo at the Met 

Text by Ed Voves

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd

There really is no time like the present. For art lovers, this undeniable fact has ominous implications when museum bulletins announce the closing date of special exhibits.

When the exhibition in question is Raphael: Sublime Poetry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the alarm and sense of impending "gloom" is all the greater. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026)

Gallery view of Raphael: Sublime Poetry at The Met

Raphael: Sublime Poetry at the Met is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience - not a figure of speech. The Met is the only venue for this exhibition, the first complete career survey of the amazing Rafaello di Giovanni Santi (1483-1520) ever presented in the U.S.

The exhibit closes at the Met on June 28. 

On June 19th, with the clock ticking, I made my second trek to Raphael: Sublime Poetry. I arrived at the Met, on the dot, as the doors opened. A lot of people had the same idea.

A mass of humanity, indeed, crowded into Gallery 899. By the time I elbowed my way out, there was a waiting line to get in, winding its way through the second-floor corridors past the Rodin statues and Symbolist paintings and on and on ...

I can recall quite a few densely-packed Met exhibitions but very few which drew the multitudes waiting to glimpse Raphael: Sublime Poetry. The 2005 Van Gogh Drawings was one. The other was Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer, 2017-18.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

 Gallery view of Raphael: Sublime Poetry

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017)

 Gallery view of Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer

Neither Raphael nor Michelangelo would likely have been pleased by the comparison. But that is exactly what art lovers have been doing since the two artists worked for the same employers - Pope Julius II and Pope Leo X - during the early years of the sixteenth century. 

The marked difference in personal demeanor and working methods between the two artists almost assured their "rivalry" in the public eye - and in the annals of art history. Famous incidents like Michelangelo's rebuke to Raphael for traveling through the streets of Rome with a entourage worthy of a prince - and Raphael's quick-riposte that Michelangelo comported himself like a hangman   - make it seem that they detested each other.

However, the Raphael exhibition at the Met presents far more evidence for an affinity between Raphael and Michelangelo than an antipathy. The great - if unacknowledged - bond between the two Renaissance masters was their mutual devotion to drawing. 

One of the great surprises of Raphael: Sublime Poetry is the outstanding quality and quantity of Raphael's drawings. Of the 170 works of art by Raphael on view, 145 drawings were selected for the exhibition.

By comparison, the 2017 Met exhibit, Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer, presented 133 drawings by the Florentine master. This sensational display of art was organized by Dr. Carmen Bambach, who curated Raphael: Sublime Poetry, as well.

The most memorable feature of Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer was the installation of a lighted photo version of the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes. 

Though reduced in scale from the original, the Met's "Sistine ceiling" was an awesome demonstration of curatorial genius. In my review of the 2017 exhibition, I wrote:

With skill and audacity to match Michelangelo, the Metropolitan has replicated the fabled Sistine Chapel ceiling ... The effect of being able to study Michelangelo's studies for the figures of the Sistine ceiling and then look above at the wondrous copy is enlightening in a way that no close study of the many fine books dealing with the Sistine frescoes can ever be.

Dr. Bambach and the Raphael design team made impressive efforts similar to the 2017 Michelangelo show. I will briefly comment later in this essay. Ultimately, it was the judicious selection of drawings by the two Renaissance masters which was the greatest achievement of both exhibits. 

 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

Raphael's The Head of the Muse Polyhymnia, 1511-12

We should not be amazed by Raphael's skill as a draftsman. Yet, it is undeniable that Raphael's reputation as a painter, especially of Madonna and Child portraits, has deflected acclaim away from his drawings. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

Raphael's Madonna of the Candelabra, 1514-16

Likewise, the critical attention devoted to Raphael's "debts' to Leonardo and Michelangelo place him in position where his unique merits can be difficult to assess.

During his sojourns in Florence, 1504-08, the young Raphael certainly studied the work of Leonardo and Michelangelo. The influence of Fra Bartolommeo, according to the noted art scholar, Paul Joannides, was also profound. 

Joannides, in his biography of Raphael, makes an important point in comparing him to the Florentine artists of his generation, who were also scrutinizing Leonardo and Michelangelo. The two titans were engaged in painting frescoes celebrating military victories. Everyone in Florence's art community was watching, but the outsider from Urbino was the most perceptive. Joannides writes:

Raphael acquired a great deal in Florence and, in his understanding of the artistic possibilities that the city had to offer, he far outdistanced native Florentines. Put simply, his intelligence, technical ability, capacity for assimilation and ambition were infinitely greater than theirs.

Raphael came to Florence ready, indeed determined, to observe. The key word in the quotation from Joannides is "assimilation." Raphael was already a proficient, largely self-taught, artist by the time he first visited Florence. The portrait sketch (below), dating to 1500 when he was barely 17 years old, clearly shows his immense ability and devotion to drawing.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

Raphael's Composition Study for the

Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino, ca. 1500

What Raphael sought in coming to Florence was insight into the latest innovations in the world of art. Talent and a command of fundamental techniques he already had.

Of the Florentine masters, Fra Bartollomeo and Leonardo, were the more obliging in affording Raphael opportunities to observe and experiment. Raphael may indeed have worked in Leonardo's studio. If so, Raphael would have directly witnessed the dramatic scene of cavalry combat which Leonardo was painting, in competition with Michelangelo's battle scene. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

Detail of Leonardo da Vinci's Studies for the Battle of Anghiari

 and the Proportions of the Head, ca. 1490-95; 1503-05.

Sadly,The Battle of Anghiari, like so much of Leonardo's work, would never be finished. A drawing made by Leonardo for his battle scene and a striking figure study reveal the revolutionary experiments in art which were taking place in Leonardo's studio - and inside his head.

While Leonardo tried to capture the frantic nature of a cavalry skirmish, Michelangelo sought to depict a group of soldiers, caught by surprise attack as they bathed in a stream. Michelangelo's handling of nude male figures in action astonished onlookers, though his painting, The Battle of Cascina, likewise, was never completed.

Raphael was deeply impressed from studying the cartoon of The Battle of Cascina and is known to have copied at least two of Michelangelo's nude soldiers struggling to don their uniforms and armor to join in the battle. The influence of The Battle of Cascina soldiers would reappear frequently in Raphael's own narrative depictions.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017), Detail of Michelangelo's Male Back with a Flag, c. 1504, created for The Battle of Cascina; Raphael's Studies of Two Male Nudes for the Naval Battle of Ostia, 1515, Albertina Museum, Vienna

Yet, Raphael had to be more circumspect when he studied Michelangelo's oeuvre than that of Leonardo. The careful process by which Raphael followed  Michelangelo's example can be traced in a revelatory sketch by Raphael in the Met exhibition.

While in Florence, Raphael received an important commission to paint an altarpiece for a noblewoman from Perugia, Atalanta Baglioni. Her son had been killed in a brawl, much like the violence depicted in Romeo and Juliet. An early "prep" drawing for the altarpiece closely follows Michelangelo's already famous Pieta.

Raphael may have been wary of being accused of plagiarizing the Pieta. He looked to an ancient tomb sculpture for an alternative pose, while keeping Michelangelo's example at the ready. Raphael took the format of the dying Greek hero, Meleager, and re-purposed it to show the body of Jesus being carried to the tomb from which he will arise on Easter.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

Marble sarcophagus fragment, showing the dying Meleager, 2nd century

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

Raphael's The Entombment

 (Composition Study for the Baglioni Altarpiece), ca. 1507

The finished work of art, entitled The Entombment, is now in the collection of the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Raphael followed the "Meleager" format discussed above. The body of Jesus, however, was painted with a profound regard for Michelangelo's Pieta, so much so that Joannides surmises that Raphael traveled to Rome to examine the statue at first hand.

Detail of The Baglioni Entombment, painted by Raphael, 1507

Other protagonists in the Baglioni Entombment (which was not on view in the Met exhibit) are based on sculpted figures by Michelangelo. The bearded man in green and gold bears a striking resemblance to an unfinished statue of St. Matthew by Michelangelo. Indeed, Raphael drew a copy of this statue on the back of the sketch shown above!

For all of these "borrowings", it must be emphasized that Raphael was internalizing - not plagiarizing - the great innovations of Leonardo and Michelangelo. A comparison of his preparatory sketch for the Alba Madonna with the finished painting, clearly shows the intelligent study by Raphael of Leonardo and Michelangelo, leading to stylistic improvements uniquely his own.

Anne Lloyd & Ed Voves, Photos (2026)

Raphael's Alba Madonna, ca. 1509, & related Composition Study

At some point in 1508, Raphael was summoned to Rome to join the team of talented architects and artists charged with building, sculpting and painting the New Rome envisioned by Pope Julius. 

Raphael's first commission, painting the frescoes of the Stanza della Segnatura, notably The School of Athens, was a triumphant success. An escalating list of commissions and duties, including the position of chief architect for the Basilica of St. Peter's, followed.

The Met's Raphael design team attempted to replicate the experience of the simulated Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes from Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer. In a bold, perhaps over bold plan, they chose to feature all four of the fresco series designed by Raphael in a digital video loop progression. Focusing exclusively on the Stanza della Segnatura, which Raphael directly painted himself, would have been more effective given the complexity of these works of art.

Ed Voves, Photo (2026)

View of the Digital Video Projection Gallery of Raphael: Sublime Poetry 

By showing the four "stanzas" in rapid succession, the Met curators did make one telling point. Raphael, who seemingly could not say no to a commission, took on staggering burdens of work, more akin to the labors of Hercules than the tasks of a mere mortal.

  

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

 Raphael's Study of Two Nude Seated Male Figures for the Transfiguration (St. Andrew and Another Apostle) ca. 1518–19

Raphael wore himself out through overwork and died, aged 37, in 1520.

While Raphael's death was a tragic loss, it should be noted that he was spared the horror of the 1527 Sack of Rome. That year, troops of the Holy Roman Empire, Catholics and Protestants, attacked the Eternal City and massacred over 20,000 people. One soldier scratched the name of Martin Luther into Raphael's fresco, The Disputa, with his pike.

Raphael's "rival" Michelangelo survived much longer, dying at 88 years in 1564. Michelangelo lived through terrible decades of religious strife and much of this turmoil is reflected in his later art, The Last Judgement and the unfinished Rondanini Pieta.

Both of these Renaissance Men, however, cannot be defined by the political or social events of their era - or by revisionist criticism of later ages. Both Raphael and Michelangelo lived to use their God-given talents to create art which is worthy of God.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

Detail of The Miraculous Draft of Fishes, designed by Raphael, 1515-16; tapestry woven by Jan van Tiegman & Frans Gheteels, late 1540s

,

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017)

 The Metropolitan Museum's "Sistine Chapel ceiling", from the Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer exhibit

Both Raphael and Michelangelo engaged in their shared passion - drawing - almost to their dying breaths.

That is why their works of art, so splendidly presented at the Met, are immortal.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                  

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd and Ed Voves

Introductory Image: Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the Raphael: Sublime Poetry exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art .

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2017 & 2026); Ed Voves, Photos (2026) Gallery views of Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer (2017) and Raphael: Sublime Poetry (2026) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y.C.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Raphael's The Head of the Muse Polyhymnia (“Auxiliary Cartoon” for the Parnassus, Stanza della Segnatura), 1511-12. Black chalk drawn freehand over pounce marks (spolvero underdrawing), traces of stylus underdrawing, and partly unrelated design in pounce marks (spolvero):Sheet: 12 × 8 3/4 in. (30.5 × 22.2 cm) Private Collection.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Raphael's The Virgin and Child with Angels (The Madonna of the Candelabra), 1514-16. Oil on poplar wood (two members; thickness reduced, panel cradled, size cut down): Framed: 47 1/16 × 49 1/2 × 8 1/4 in. (119.6 × 125.7 × 21 cm) Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Raphael's Composition Study for the Coronation of St. Nicholas of Tolentino (The Baronci Altarpiece), ca. 1500. Black chalk, over preliminary stylus underdrawing, with a construction of numerous overlapping circles incised with the compass, squared (recto), black chalk, over preliminary stylus underdrawing (verso), on paper: 15 1/2 × 10 3/8 in. (39.4 × 26.3 cm)  Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Detail of Leonardo da Vinci's Studies for the Battle of Anghiari and the Proportions of the Head, ca. 1490-95; 1503-05. Pen and two hues of brown ink (that of lighter color later reworked with black-brown ink), over traces of preliminary stylus work, soft black chalk, red chalk :11 × 8 13/16 in. (28 × 22.4 cm) Gallerie dell’Accademia, Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe, Venice

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017), Detail of Michelangelo's Male Back with a Flag, c. 1504, created for The Battle of Cascina. Chalk on paper: 7.7 x 11 in. 19.6 x27 cm) Albertina Museum, Vienna.

Raphael (Italian, 1483-1520) Studies of Two Male Nudes for the Naval Battle of Ostia, 1515.  Red chalk over preliminary stylus underdrawing, on paper:15 7/8 × 11 1/8 in. (40.3 × 28.3 cm) Albertina Museum, Vienna.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Marble sarcophagus fragment, showing the dying Meleager, 2nd century, Roman Empire. Marble: 38 1/8 in. × 8 3/4 in. × 46 7/8 in. (96.8 × 22.2 × 119.1 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Raphael's The Entombment (Composition Study for the Baglioni Altarpiece), ca. 1507. Pen and brown ink over black chalk and preliminary stylus underdrawing (recto), pen and brown ink (verso), on paper:9 × 12 1/2 in. (22.9 × 31.8 cm) British Museum.

Raphael (Italian, 1483-1520) Detail of The Baglioni Entombment, 1507. Oil on wood: 72 1/2 × 69 3/8 in. (184 × 176 cm) Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Anne Lloyd & Ed Voves, Photos (2026) The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist in a Landscape (The Alba Madonna) ca. 1509-11: Oil on canvas, transferred from wood: 55 1/4 in. × 6 1/4 in. (140.3 × 15.9 cm) National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C; related composition study for the Alba Madonna, 1509, from the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Raphael's Study of Two Nude Seated Male Figures for the Transfiguration (St. Andrew and Another Apostle) ca. 1518–19. Red chalk over preliminary stylus underdrawing: 12 15/16 × 9 1/8 in. (32.8 × 23.2 cm) The Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth, England.

 Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Detail of The Miraculous Draft of Fishes, designed by Raphael, 1515-16; tapestry woven by Jan van Tiegman & Frans Gheteels, late 1540s. Warp: wool, 7-8 per cm; weft: wool and silk, lined on the reverse, 34-38 per cm.: 15 ft. 11 3/4 in. × 19 ft. 5 1/16 in. (487 × 592 cm) Patrimonio Nacional, Colecciones Reales, Madrid, Spain

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) The Metropolitan Museum's "Sistine Chapel ceiling", from the Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer exhibition.

 

 

 

Art Eyewitness Review: Rising Up - Rocky Statue Exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments

Philadelphia Museum of Art

April 25- August 2, 2026

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Original photography by Anne Lloyd

In January 1976, the Chartoff-Winkler Production Company began on-location filming in Philadelphia of a movie devoted to boxing. With a script written by a struggling young actor, Sylvester Stallone, the film was a big-screen adaptation of a familiar Hollywood genre, the "underdog" hero who battles the odds.

Using the recently-invented "steady-cam" motion picture camera, the unforgettable run of Rocky Balboa, a "bum from the neighborhood", up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art was recorded. It would prove to be a moment of movie magic.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) 

The fabled "Rocky" steps. Gonna Fly Now!!! 

There was not much attention paid to the film production during the winter/spring months of 1976. It was the year of the Bicentennial. Americans were busy preparing for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the United States.

Rocky, when it was released by United Artists in December 1976, was a popular hit and a critical success. Fifty years on, this Academy Award-winning movie, along with its five sequels and the spin-off Creed series, is one of the most universally embraced films in cinematic history. 

Anne Lloyd, Photos (1976 & 2024) 

The view from the "Rocky" steps of Philadelphia's skyline, then and now

The impact of Rocky is so great that the Philadelphia Museum of Art is currently mounting an exhibition using the film as a "take-off" point. This is a significant point to note, as there is very little in Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments by way of memorabilia from the film - with one very powerful exception. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

 Rocky, sculpted by A.Thomas Schomberg (1980),

 and given by Sylvester Stallone to the City of Philadelphia

That exception is the statue of Rocky, raising his arms in triumph. Sculpted by A.Thomas Schomberg (born, 1943) in 1980 and then cast in bronze, the statue was originally intended as a movie "prop" for Rocky III, released in 1982.

The statue has been the subject of both adulation and criticism. An initial proposal for the statue to remain at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), following Rocky III, was rejected. But the bronze Rocky eventually made its way back to a street-level sanctuary on the side of the museum, not  - initially - the steps.  A constant stream of visitors over the years turned it into a veritable pilgrimage site.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020)

The Rocky Statue, on view on the northwest side of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, before its placement in the Rising Up exhibition

Now the once-spurned movie "prop" is inside the museum. Outside, at the top of the "Rocky Steps" is a second version, owned by Sylvester Stallone and on loan to the PMA. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

A "Rocky" moment on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art 

Thus, people can see the Rocky "twins" and still run-up the steps, raising their arms to the sky like champions. And they do - an estimated 4 million per year, rivaling the number of visitors to the Statue of Liberty.

The Rocky experience is obviously a response to some primal human need or compulsion. Indeed, mythic is not too strong a word to use in relation to the Rocky phenomenon. This is especially true when the statue is contrasted with the images of Greek gods and goddesses, looming above on the pediment of the museum.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

Rocky, with Carl Jennewein's Western Civilization Pediment

The current exhibition at the PMA seeks to address the reason why Rocky has struck such a chord.

Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments investigates the way that the sport of boxing has influenced and inspired popular conceptions of what it means to be a champion and how society regards, rewards or ignores such heroics. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2026) 

Paul Farber of Monument Lab, with Jacqui Frazier-Lyde,

 daughter of Joe Frazier, at the press preview for

 Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments

Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments is organized by a guest curator, Paul Farber, director and co-founder of Monument Lab. This Philadelphia-based organization is dedicated to re-imagining public spaces and the statues and monuments which are placed there In order to promote social justice and community well-being.

As its title proclaims, the Rocky-inspired exhibition is dedicated to "rising up." This process, ironically, involves many a "knock out." Surveying the sport of boxing, Farber shows how marginalized ethnic groups have won respect due to the courage, grit and fighting skills of heroes from their ranks.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Mahroni Young's Right to the Jaw, 1926-27

A selection of carefully-chosen art works and artifacts illustrates the long historical lineage of Rocky Balboa. 

 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Neck Amphora from ancient Greece, 510-490 BC, showing a

 boxing match created in the Archaic Black Figure technique 

In ancient Greece, boxing entered the list of approved sports in the Olympics in 688 BC. As a result, boxers from small city-states could compete - and sometimes beat - opponents from more powerful rivals. The most famous Greek boxer was the undefeated champion, Claucis, c. 520 BC. Glaucis was a citizen of Carystus, often dominated and bullied by Athens - but not in the boxing ring!

During the late 18th and early 19th century, boxing as we know it today was largely created in England. The sport was dominated by Daniel Mendoza (1764-1836), a highly-skilled Jewish fighter, and Tom Molineaux (1784-1818) a rugged African-American boxer. Molineaux fought a highly publicized bout against the reigning champion, Tom Cribb, losing in what many regarded as a "rigged" encounter. But he gained widespread respect, serving as the inspiration for one of the Staffordshire figurines shown below.                                                                        

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Staffordshire Pottery Figurines from England, c. 1815. The African American boxer, Tom Molineaux, at left, vs Tom Cribb.

Closer to our era is Joe Louis (1914-1981). The "Brown Bomber" (as Louis was called) is represented in the exhibition by an unsettling portrait sculpture by Ruth Yates. Louis, a powerful fighter with 66 wins, 3 defeats, held the heavy-weight title longer than any other boxer (1937-1949). He was also a deeply humane and generous man. The stern, emotion-drained countenance of this sculpture is almost unrecognizable compared to the photos of Louis included in the exhibition.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Marble sculpture portrait of Joe Louis, created by Ruth Yates,1940;

 photo of Joe Louis, taken by Carl van Vechten, September 15,1941

Joe Louis became a folk hero to African Americans in the still-segregated U.S. of the 1930's. By virtue of his manifest humanity, not to mention boxing skill, he was embraced by white Americans, too. 

Sadly, Louis became a tragic hero as well. With most of his earnings siphoned-off by dishonest managers, Louis was hounded by the IRS for unpaid taxes. As a result, he was compelled to fight long-after his prime, when two of his three defeats occurred. Eventually, the "Brown Bomber" was reduced to the humiliation of performing in the professional wrestling circuit.

The saga of Joe Louis sets the stage in Rising Up for the story of a real life "Rocky."  The rise to boxing greatness of Joe Frazier and his epic duels with Muhammad Ali are brought to life with a superb array of works of art, photos and memorabilia - including Frazier's boxing gloves. 

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2026) 

Joe Frazier's Boxing Gloves, made by Everlast, 1970. 

As visitors to the exhibition watch a video recording of the 1971"Fight of the Century," a charge of excitement surges through the gallery.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

 Photo by Larry Morris (New York Times) of Joe Frazier vs Muhammad Ali

 and video recording of the "Fight of the Century", March 8, 1971 

Joe Frazier was born in 1944 to share-cropper parents in the rural South. Just as Joe Louis sought to escape poverty and racism by joining the Great Migration to Detroit, Frazier did the same, in his case to Philadelphia. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Six Headshots of Joe Frazier, by an Unknown Photographer. 

Private Collection of Joe Hand III

Much like the fictional Rocky Balboa, Frazier honed his boxing skill, slugging beef carcasses in the meat-packing plant where he worked in Philadelphia. From this humble start, Frazier went on to win the Gold Medal for Boxing in the 1964 Olympics.

The similarity between these two working-class heroes, Frazier/Rocky, was deliberately underscored by Stallone in the film script, especially in the way that the blue-collar fighter was pitted against the flamboyant Apollo Creed.

Yet, nothing in fiction or fantasy could ever match the drama of the actual Frazier-Ali fights. 

The Frazier-Ali fights were true battles, inflicting brutal physical punishment and lasting scars on both men. What began as a prize fight developed into a grudge match.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Detail of the Madison Square Garden poster for the March 8, 1971

 "Fight of the Century", original artwork by LeRoy Neimann.

This review is not the place to re-fight the three boxing duels from the 1970's. However, the political factors which impinged upon the relationship between Frazier and Ali do require some commentary here. 

Why? The stated aim of the curator of Rising Up, Paul Farber of Monument Lab, is to promote social justice. Unfortunately, it was the crusading ardor of the late 1960's-70's which helped poison the atmosphere of the Frazier-Ali fights.

Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali started-out as close friends. When Ali was stripped of his Heavyweight Boxing title in 1967 for refusing to support the Vietnam War, Frazier stood by Ali. Frazier lent Ali money to support his family and petitioned President Nixon to lift the ban and allow Ali to return to the boxing ring.

A critical incident took place during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics with a huge impact on American society at large and, indirectly, on Ali and Frazier.That year, two African American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, raised their fists during the playing of the U.S. National Anthem. They did this to show solidarity with the Civil Rights Movement and other social activist causes.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Hank Willis Thomas' Solidarity, 2023, Pace Gallery collection

The resulting furor, coming in the wake of protests over the war in Vietnam, promoted an uncompromising mindset on social discourse throughout the U.S. When Muhammad Ali eventually returned to boxing, he embraced this militancy. But instead of focusing his radical comments directly at the White power structure, Ali took aim at Frazier, whom he lambasted as an "Uncle Tom."

Stunned and embittered by this verbal abuse, Frazier fought with exceptional determination in the first of his bouts with Ali, which he won. Ali responded. By the end of the third and last fight, in Manila in 1975, the duel between the two mighty legends of the ring had become a personal feud.

"They did not fight for the heavyweight title of the world," wrote the noted boxing authority, Jerry Izenberg in 1975. "The way they fought, they were fighting for the championship of each other."

Sadly, there was no reconciliation between Frazier and Ali, though Ali did attend Frazier's funeral in 2011. But the great lesson to be drawn from their rivalry is not a negative one. Ultimately, it is a matter of "rising up."  

At the press preview for Rising Up, Joe Frazier's daughter, Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, spoke movingly about her father, who demonstrated how to "embrace the champion in you."

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2026) 

Fifty years later, Rocky's appeal is undiminished. 

Words to live by. "Embrace the champion in you." 

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2026) 

A Rocky enthusiast embracing her inner champion!

Words to exclaim and exult! Race-up the "Rocky" steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, raise your arms to the sky and let your heart and soul arise.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                                                          

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd

Introductory Image: Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) A "Rocky" Moment at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, Photos (1976, 2020, 2024, 2025, 2026) Photographs of the "Rocky" steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and visitors doing the "Rocky" run.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)The Rocky statue by A. Thomas Schomberg, 1980. Bronze: 8' 6'' x 4' x 2' (base: 1' 6" x 3' 6" x 3' 6") Gift of Sylvester Stallone to the City of Philadelphia.

Ed Voves,  Photo (2026) Paul Farber of Monument Lab, with Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, daughter of Joe Frazier at the press preview for Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)  Mahroni Young's Right to the Jaw, 1926-27. Roman Bronze Works. Bronze: 15 x 21 1/4 x 10 1/8 inches (38.1 x 54 x 25.7 cm) (overall, including base) Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Neck Amphora from ancient Greece, 510-490 BC. Ceramic Black Figure vessel: 29.5 x 18.5 x 17 cm. Collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Figures of Boxers, Tom Molineaux and Tom Cribb, c. 1815. Staffordshire potteries, England. Pearlglazed earthenware with overglaze painted decoration. Collection of the Winterthur Museum, Delaware.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Ruth Yates's Joe Louis,1940. Vermont marble sculpture: 18 5/16 x 13 x 13 3/8 inches (46.5 x 33 x 34 cm) Wolfsonian-FIU, The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. collection.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Joe Frazier's Boxing Gloves, made by Everlast c. 1970. Red leather: 12 (length) x 7 (width) x 5.5 (depth) x 19 (circumference) inches. Atwater Kent Collection, Drexel University.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monument exhibition, showing a large format photograph by Larry Morris, New York Times, of the March 8, 1971 boxing match between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)  Six Headshots of Joe Frazier. Photographer unknown. Private Collection of Joe Hand III.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Detail of the Madison Square Garden poster for the March 8, 1971 boxing match between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. Original artwork by LeRoy Neimann.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Hank Willis Thomas' Solidarity, 2023. Patina bronze: 86.8 x 24.8 x 36.7 inches (220.5 x 62.9 x 93.2 cm) Pace Gallery, Los Angeles.