Similarly, he has admired the side his moon of poets has shown the
whole world in her poetry, but he blesses himself with the thought
of the other side which he alone has seen.
5. Century of sonnets: Rafael is known to have written four love
sonnets on the back of sketches for his wall painting, the
"Disputa," which are still preserved in collections, one of them in
the British Museum. The Italian text of these sonnets with English
translations are given in Wolzogen's Life of him translated by
F. E. Bunn
tt. Did he ever write a hundred? It is supposed that
the lost book once owned by Guido Reni, apparently the one referred
to in stanza iv, was a book of drawings. Perhaps these also bore
sonnets on their backs, or Browning guessed they did.
10. Who that one: Margarita, a girl Rafael met and loved in Rome,
two portraits of whom exist--one in the Barberini Palace, Rome, the
other in the Pitti, in Florence. They resemble the Sistine and
other Madonnas by Rafael.
21. Madonnas, etc.: "San Sisto," now in Dresden; "Foligno," in the
Vatican, Rome; the one in Florence is called "del Granduca," and
represents her appearing in a vision; the one in the Louvre, called
"La Belle Jardinire," is seated in a garden among lilies.
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