Note 155 — 1837
Reading edition
This sonnet refers to the picture of the young St. John the Baptist, now in the Tribuna, Florence, designed about the same time as the Madonna di San Sisto, for Cardinal Colonna, who is said to have presented it to his doctor, Jacopo da Carpi. It has been much admired, and often copied; but it is inferior, both in drawing and in colouring, to the great works of Raphael. How much of it was actually from his hand is uncertain; and Baptist is painted rather like a Bacchus than a Saint.—Ed.