NEW YORK CITY — The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has opened "Raphael: Sublime Poetry," the first comprehensive exhibition of Raphael's work in the United States. The show includes 237 works and runs through June 28.

Curator Carmen Bambach spent eight years assembling the exhibition, which traces the Renaissance master's career from his early years through his final works. Born in Urbino in 1483, Raphael was believed to be 17 years old when he made a chalk sketch that is likely a self-portrait.

"What is really extraordinary is the perfection of his technique in drawing," Bambach said.

Raphael moved to Florence when he was 21 years old, where he encountered the work of Leonardo da Vinci. His friendships with well-connected patrons led to larger commissions, and at age 25 he moved to Rome to produce frescoes for the pope's private offices and library. Those frescoes are reproduced at three-quarters scale in the Met exhibition.

Among the Roman-era works, Raphael painted "The School of Athens" for Pope Julius II between 1510 and 1511, a fresco in which he included both a self-portrait and a likeness of Leonardo da Vinci. He was also commissioned to design large tapestries intended to hang below Michelangelo's ceiling in the Sistine Chapel.

Raphael's portraits depict the actual appearance of the individuals he painted. Among them is a portrait of Bindo Altoviti, a banker for the pope and a friend of Raphael, which is housed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

The exhibition also features a chalk drawing that was a study for "The Transfiguration," the last painting Raphael completed. "This is the most beautiful drawing that Raphael ever produced. For somebody to get that foreshortening of the fingers, and the different planes of the hands in a credible way, this is how you tell the greatest artists from somebody who is just good," Bambach said.

Raphael died of a fever in Rome on April 6, 1520, his 37th birthday. The inscription on his tomb in the Pantheon reads, "While he was alive, Nature feared she would be surpassed by him. When he died, she feared that she would die, too."

A catalogue titled "Raphael: Sublime Poetry" by Carmen C. Bambach will be published in hardcover on April 14. It is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org.