The poet and the painter A note on a “topic” of love poetry, from Petrarch to Gaspara Stampa

The two sonnets Petrarch dedicated to Laura’s portrait painted by Simone Martini (Rvf 77-78) were the ground on which was based a successful topic in the XVIth love-poetry: the invocation of the painter’s name. Such a figure introduces the description of the loved lady’s beauties, and, by the paragone with the painter, it emphasizes the poet as a lover, able to express the divine essence of beauty.