156. Quiddit. Quibble. The humorous rhyme "did it—quiddit" is but one of the many whimsical rhyming effects in the poem. The use of a light, semi-jocose form to give the greater emphasis to serious subject-matter is characteristic of Browning. Lowell in "A Fable for Critics" employs the same device.
161-176. Not Browning's usual attitude. Even this poem is a deification of progress through effort, not through repose.
178. Art's spring-birth. Nicolo the Pisan and Cimabue lived in the second half of the thirteenth century. From them to Ghiberti (1381-1455), who made the famous bronze doors of the Baptistry at Florence, and Ghirlandajo (1449-1494), a Florentine fresco painter, was a period in which Browning was especially interested. Mrs. Orr says that he owned pictures by all the artists mentioned here.
192. Italian quicklime. Many of the fine old Italian fresco paintings have been whitewashed over.
198. Dree. The pictures "endure" the doom of captivity. But they might be ferreted out if the ghosts of the old painters would only indicate where the lost works are.
201-224. He does not hope to get pictures of the famous Florentine painters, Bigordi (probably another name for Ghirlandajo), Sandro, Botticelli, Lippino (son of Fra Lippo Lippi), or Fra Angelico. But he might hope for better success in finding pieces by the obscure painters mentioned in lines 205-224. These painters are so described that we know concerning each one, some characteristic quality or work.
206. Intonaco. The plaster that forms the ground for fresco work.
214. Tempera. A pigment mixed with some vehicle soluble in water instead of with oil as in oil paintings.
218. Barret. A kind of cap.
230. Zeno. The founder of the sect of Stoics, and hence supposedly not stirred by "naked High Art."