earlier obscure artists like Dello, that art is a real and
continuous record of the human mind and heart.

67. _The mastiff girns._ When some influential critic snarls, all the
imitative inferior critics take the same tone. Cf. Shelley's "Adonais,"
stanzas 28, 37, 38.

69. _Stefano._ A pupil of Giotto and called "Nature's ape" because his
accurate representations of the human body.

72. _Vasari._ Author of _Lives of the Most Eminent Painters and
Sculptors_. (Published 1550. Translated by Mrs. Foster in _Bohn's
Library_.) In his studies of art Browning made constant use of this
book.

76. _Sic transit. Sic transit gloria mundi._ "So passes away the glory
of the world."

84. _In fructu._ "As fruit." The fruit of Greek art at its best was that
it presented in marble ideally perfect human bodies.

98. _Theseus._ The kingly statue of the reclining Theseus in the frieze
of the Parthenon.

99. _Son of Priam._ In the sculptures of AEsina, Paris, the son of Priam,
kneeling and drawing his bow, has a grace beyond that of any man who
might think to pose as a model.

101. _Apollo._ At Delphi Apollo slew an enormous python.

102. _Niobe._ Through the vengeance of Apollo and Diana, Niobe's seven
sons and seven daughters were all slain. In the Imperial Gallery of
Florence there is a statue of Niobe clasping her last child.

103. _The Racer's frieze._ In the Parthenon.

104. _The dying Alexander._ A piece of ancient Greek sculpture at
Florence.

108. _To submit is a mortal's duty._ The supreme beauty of the statues
led men to content themselves with admiration and imitation.

113. _Growth came._ New life came to art when men ceased to rest in the
perfect achievement of the past, and found a new realm opened up to them
in representing the subtler activities of the soul. Lines 145-152 state
the ideals that actuated the new art. The reference is to the religious
art of the Italian Renaissance.

115-144. These lines sum up the reasons for the importance of the art
that strives "to bring the invisible full into play" (l. 150). It may be
rough-hewn and faulty; but it is greater and grander than Greek art
because of its greater range, variety, and complexity, and because it
reaches beyond any possible present perfection into eternity.

134. _Thy one work ... done at a stroke._ Giotto when asked for a proof
of his skill to send to the Pope, drew with one stroke of his brush a
perfect circle, whence the proverb, "Rounder tha