May 12, 2026 New York The Metropolitan Museum

We took a ~8 AM flight to New York, so we were able to drop my backpack and Sue’s shoulder bag at the hotel and head out to The Met.   We do travel light.   We started by walking through Central Park, but went to 5^th Ave. to avoid the hills in the park.  It probably took us 45 minutes to get to the Museum.  We went right to the Raphael Exhibition, the main reason for our visit.   “Raphael is one of art history’s greatest figures, an Italian Renaissance genius.”  Raphael only lived to be 37, dying in 1520.  It is the largest Raphael exhibition in U.S. history, and it was crowded.  But that didn’t stop me from taking too many photos.  I only took a few photos of the drawings, of which there were many.  As you will see the drawings are black ink on very dark paper (my guess the paper didn’t age well) so there isn’t the contrast  between different colors that you have in a painting.  I think I got photos of most of the Raphael paintings.  My impression is that most of Raphael’s paintings and drawings had a religious theme.  Living during the Renaissance may have had much to do with his subjects.  He would paint what would sell, OR what the rich would pay him to paint. After the exhibition we went to see the Met’s collection which is fabulous. I took photos of artists I know, and new paintings that I like, and you can see them all, or not, it’s up to you.

After the visit to the Met we went back to check into our hotel.  It had been a long day, so we went to a restaurant across the street from our hotel, an Irish pub.  It is New York, so it was very good.

May 12, 2026 New York The Metropolitan Museum