276. Guidi : Tommaso Guidi, or Masaccio, nicknamed "Hulking Tom"
(1401-1429). [Vasari makes him Lippo's predecessor. Browning
followed the best knowledge of his time in making him, instead,
Lippo's pupil. Vasari is now thought to be right.]
323. A Saint Laurence . . . at Prato: near Florence, where Lippi
painted many saints. [Vasari speaks of a Saint Stephen painted there
in the same realistic manner as Browning's Saint Laurence, whose
martyrdom of broiling to death on a gridiron affords Lippo's powers
a livelier effect.] The legend of this saint makes his fortitude
such that he bade his persecutors turn him over, as he was "done on
one side."
346. Something in Sant Ambrogio's: picture of the Virgin crowned
with angels and saints, painted for Saint Ambrose Church, now at the
Belle Arti in Florence. Vasari says by means of it he became known
to Cosimo. Browning, on the other hand, crowns his poem with
Lippo's description of this picture as an expiation for his pranks.
354. Saint John: the Baptist; see reference to camel-hair, line 375
and Matthew iii. 4.