Introduction to Robert Browning [56]
Senza Errori, as he was surnamed by the Italians) is the speaker. He addresses his worthless wife, Lucrezia, upon whom he weakly dotes, and for whom he has broken faith with his royal patron, Francis I. of France, in order that he might meet her demands for money, to be spent upon her pleasures. He laments that he has fallen below himself as an artist, that he has not realized the possibilities of his genius, half accusing, from the better side of his nature, and half excusing, in his uxoriousness, the woman who has had no sympathy with him in the high ideals which, with her support, he might have realized, and thus have placed himself beside Angelo and Rafael. "Had the mouth then urged `God and the glory! never care for gain. The present by the future, what is that? Live for fame, side by side with Angelo -- Rafael is waiting. Up to God all three!' I might have done it for you."
In his `Comparative Study of Tennyson and Browning'*, Professor Edward Dowden, setting forth Browning's doctrines on the subject of Art, remarks: --
-- * Originally a lecture, delivered in 1868, and published in `Afternoon Lectures on Literature and Art' (Dublin), 5th series, 1869; afterwards revised, and included in the author's `Studies in Literature, 1789-1877'. It is one of the best criticisms of Browning's poetry that have yet been produced. Every Browning student should make a careful study of it. --
"The true glory of art is, that in its creation there arise desires and aspirations never to be satisfied on earth, but generating new desires and new aspirations, by which the spirit of man mounts to God Himself. The artist (Mr. Browning loves to insist on this point) who can realize in marble or in color, or in music, his ideal, has thereby missed the highest gain of art. In `Pippa Passes' the regeneration of the young sculptor's work turns on his finding that in the very perfection which he had attained lies ultimate failure. And one entire poem, `Andrea del Sarto', has been devoted to the exposition of this thought. Andrea is `the faultless painter'; no line of his drawing ever goes astray; his hand expressed adequately and accurately all that his mind conceives; but for this very reason, precisely because he is `the faultless painter', his work lacks the highest qualities of art: -- "`A man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a Heaven for? all is silver-grey, Placid and perfect with my art -- the worse.'
"And in the youthful Raphael, whose technical execution fell so far below his own, Andrea recognizes the true master: -- "`Yonder's a work, now, of that famous youth', etc.
"In Andrea del Sarto," says Vasari, "art and nature combined to show all that may be done in painting, where design, coloring, and invention unite in one and the same person. Had this master possessed a somewhat bolder and more elevated mind, had he been as much distinguished for higher qualifications as he was for genius and depth of judgment in the art he practised, he would, beyond all doubt, have been without an equal. But there was a certain timidity of mind, a sort of diffidence and want of force in his nature, which rendered it impossible that those evidences of ardor and animation which are proper to the more exalted character, should ever appear in him; nor did he at any time display one particle of that elevation which, could it but have been added to the advantages wherewith he was endowed, would have rendered him a truly divine painter: wherefore the works of Andrea are wanting in those ornaments of grandeur, richness, and force, which appear so conspicuously in those of many other masters. His figures are, nevertheless, well drawn, they are entirely free from errors, and perfect in all their proportions, and are for the most part simple and chaste: the expression of his heads is natural and graceful in women and children, while in youths and old men it is full of life and animation. The draperies of this master are beautiful to a marvel, and the nude figures are admirably executed, the drawing
In his `Comparative Study of Tennyson and Browning'*, Professor Edward Dowden, setting forth Browning's doctrines on the subject of Art, remarks: --
-- * Originally a lecture, delivered in 1868, and published in `Afternoon Lectures on Literature and Art' (Dublin), 5th series, 1869; afterwards revised, and included in the author's `Studies in Literature, 1789-1877'. It is one of the best criticisms of Browning's poetry that have yet been produced. Every Browning student should make a careful study of it. --
"The true glory of art is, that in its creation there arise desires and aspirations never to be satisfied on earth, but generating new desires and new aspirations, by which the spirit of man mounts to God Himself. The artist (Mr. Browning loves to insist on this point) who can realize in marble or in color, or in music, his ideal, has thereby missed the highest gain of art. In `Pippa Passes' the regeneration of the young sculptor's work turns on his finding that in the very perfection which he had attained lies ultimate failure. And one entire poem, `Andrea del Sarto', has been devoted to the exposition of this thought. Andrea is `the faultless painter'; no line of his drawing ever goes astray; his hand expressed adequately and accurately all that his mind conceives; but for this very reason, precisely because he is `the faultless painter', his work lacks the highest qualities of art: -- "`A man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a Heaven for? all is silver-grey, Placid and perfect with my art -- the worse.'
"And in the youthful Raphael, whose technical execution fell so far below his own, Andrea recognizes the true master: -- "`Yonder's a work, now, of that famous youth', etc.
"In Andrea del Sarto," says Vasari, "art and nature combined to show all that may be done in painting, where design, coloring, and invention unite in one and the same person. Had this master possessed a somewhat bolder and more elevated mind, had he been as much distinguished for higher qualifications as he was for genius and depth of judgment in the art he practised, he would, beyond all doubt, have been without an equal. But there was a certain timidity of mind, a sort of diffidence and want of force in his nature, which rendered it impossible that those evidences of ardor and animation which are proper to the more exalted character, should ever appear in him; nor did he at any time display one particle of that elevation which, could it but have been added to the advantages wherewith he was endowed, would have rendered him a truly divine painter: wherefore the works of Andrea are wanting in those ornaments of grandeur, richness, and force, which appear so conspicuously in those of many other masters. His figures are, nevertheless, well drawn, they are entirely free from errors, and perfect in all their proportions, and are for the most part simple and chaste: the expression of his heads is natural and graceful in women and children, while in youths and old men it is full of life and animation. The draperies of this master are beautiful to a marvel, and the nude figures are admirably executed, the drawing