CARMEN BAMBACH: I think Raphael is one of the greatest influencers of all time; a natural storyteller…. He has an extraordinary creative energy…. I think it is possible to find the person behind the art.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI (NARRATOR): Hello, I’m Isabella Rossellini. Welcome to Raphael: Sublime Poetry. This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition will take you on an epic journey through Raphael’s short but extraordinary career. It was organized by Carmen Bambach, Marica F. and Jan T. Vilcek Curator of Drawings and Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

BAMBACH: I’ve been working on this exhibition for almost eight years. 

ROSSELLINI: The works of art you’ll see have traveled from museums and collections all over the world. And the scale of this exhibition reflects Raphael’s outsize ambitions and his meteoric rise.

Raffaello di Giovanni Santi—today known simply as Raphael—was born in the small but refined city of Urbino, in the year 1483.

BAMBACH: Raphael throughout his life identified himself very closely with Urbino. He signed every single painting that he signed as Raffaello d'Urbino.

ROSSELLINI: By age eleven, Raphael had lost both his mother and father. By the time he was a teenager, his prodigious talent was already apparent. And you’ll get a sense of that from the very first work in the exhibition. Look for the drawing of a young boy.

It’s likely a self-portrait, done when Raphael was just seventeen.

CARMEN BAMBACH: This very young man has portrayed himself with an extraordinarily refined handling of the black chalk.

And very importantly, let's focus on the gaze of this figure, because there is an interior life that communicates through his eyes, in a way that it is as much a psychological portrait as it is a physical portrait.

ROSSELLINI: This Audio Guide is sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.