Note 111 — Chapter XXVI
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Roscoe, who wrote without an opportunity of seeing these paintings, describes this Pope as kneeling in his pontificals before the Madonna, in whom is portrayed his mistress, Julia Farnese. In this palpable blunder he has been followed by Rio and others. It would be curious to discover on what authority Gordon, in his life of Borgia, states that a likeness of La Vanosia, another of his mistresses, hung for Madonna-worship in the church of the Popolo at Rome. The circumstance coming from such a quarter is questionable; at all events, it is no longer true. Alexander kneels before the Risen, not the Ascending Christ. *Roscoe followed Vasari.