Mozart and Raphael

Part of TŌN’s Sight & Sound series

In the popular series Sight & Sound, TŌN explores the parallels between orchestral music and visual art. Each performance includes a discussion with conductor and music historian Leon Botstein accompanied by on-screen exhibition images and live musical excerpts, followed by a full performance of the works and an audience Q&A.

Raffaello di Giovanni Santi (1483–1520)—better known as Raphael—was one of history’s most beloved and influential artists. A true titan of the Italian Renaissance, Raphael matched ambition with lyricism to create works with both intellectual heft and emotional depth, a necessary skill in the complex political landscape of Renaissance courts. In his short life of only 37 years, he achieved such profound success as a painter, designer, and architect that he was regarded as the pinnacle of artistic perfection for centuries after his death. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was himself one of the most prolific and influential artists of the Classical period. He gave piano concerts starting at age five and wrote his first opera at age 11. He composed more than 800 works by the time of his death at age 35. Mozart wrote dozens of symphonies, composing the final three over six weeks in the summer of 1788. The 41st, his last, puts on full display the extraordinary compositional technique he mastered over the course of his career. Both of these prodigies were driven by their quest for perfection, earning great acclaim for their skillful technique early in their short lives and leaving a legacy to which artists would aspire for centuries thereafter.

The exhibition Raphael: Sublime Poetry will be on view at The Met Fifth Avenue March 29 – June 28, 2026 in gallery 899.