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.
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