Introduction to Robert Browning [97]
an ancient Master.
-- St. 6. "He sees the ghosts of the early Christian masters, whose work has never been duly appreciated, standing sadly by each mouldering Italian Fresco." -- Dowden.
7.
For oh, this world and the wrong it does! They are safe in heaven with their backs to it, The Michaels and Rafaels, you hum and buzz Round the works of, you of the little wit! Do their eyes contract to the earth's old scope, Now that they see God face to face, And have all attained to be poets, I hope? 'Tis their holiday now, in any case.
8.
Much they reck of your praise and you! But the wronged great souls -- can they be quit Of a world where their work is all to do, Where you style them, you of the little wit, Old Master This and Early the Other, Not dreaming that Old and New are fellows: A younger succeeds to an elder brother, Da Vincis derive in good time from Dellos.
-- St. 8. Much they reck of your praise and you!: the Michaels and Rafaels. Leonardo da Vinci (b. at Vinci, in the Val d'Arno, below Florence, 1452); "in him the two lines of artistic descent, tracing from classic Rome and Christian Byzantium, meet." -- Heaton's `History of Painting'. Dello di Niccolo Delli, painter and sculptor, fl. first half 15th cent.
9.
And here where your praise might yield returns, And a handsome word or two give help, Here, after your kind, the mastiff girns, And the puppy pack of poodles yelp. What, not a word for Stefano there, Of brow once prominent and starry, Called Nature's Ape and the world's despair For his peerless painting? (see Vasari.)
-- St. 9. "Stefano is extolled by Vasari as having left Giotto himself far behind, but it is very difficult to ascertain what were really his works." -- Heaton. "Stefano appears from Landinio's Commentary on Dante to have been called `scimia della natura', the ape of nature, which seems to refer to the strong realistic tendencies common to the school." -- Woltmann and Woermann's History of Painting. Giorgio Vasari, an Italian painter of Arezzo, b. 1512, d. 1574; author of `Vite de' piu excellenti pittori scultori ed architettori'. Florence, 1550.
10.
There stands the Master. Study, my friends, What a man's work comes to! So he plans it, Performs it, perfects it, makes amends For the toiling and moiling, and then, `sic transit'! Happier the thrifty blind-folk labor, With upturned eye while the hand is busy, Not sidling a glance at the coin of their neighbor! 'Tis looking downward makes one dizzy.
11.
"If you knew their work you would deal your dole." May I take upon me to instruct you? When Greek Art ran and reached the goal, Thus much had the world to boast `in fructu' -- The Truth of Man, as by God first spoken, Which the actual generations garble, Was re-uttered, and Soul (which Limbs betoken) And Limbs (Soul informs) made new in marble.
-- St. 11. "If you knew their work", etc.: The speaker imputes this remark to some one; the meaning is, if you really knew these old Christian painters, you would deal them your mite of praise, damn them, perhaps, with faint praise, and no more. The poet then proceeds to instruct this person.
12.
So, you saw yourself as you wished you were, As you might have been, as you cannot be; Earth here, rebuked by Olympus there: And grew content in your poor degree With your little power, by those statues' godhead, And your little scope, by their eyes' full sway, And your little grace, by their grace embodied, And your little date, by their forms that stay.
13.
You would fain be kinglier, say, than I am? Even so, you will not sit like Theseus. You would prove a model? The Son of Priam Has yet the advantage in arms' and knees' use. You're wroth -- can you slay your snake like Apollo? You're grieved -- still Niobe's the grander! You live -- there's the Racers' frieze to follow: You die -- there's the dying Alexander.
-- St. 13. Theseus: a reclining statue from the eastern pediment of the Parthenon, now in the British Museum.
-- St. 6. "He sees the ghosts of the early Christian masters, whose work has never been duly appreciated, standing sadly by each mouldering Italian Fresco." -- Dowden.
7.
For oh, this world and the wrong it does! They are safe in heaven with their backs to it, The Michaels and Rafaels, you hum and buzz Round the works of, you of the little wit! Do their eyes contract to the earth's old scope, Now that they see God face to face, And have all attained to be poets, I hope? 'Tis their holiday now, in any case.
8.
Much they reck of your praise and you! But the wronged great souls -- can they be quit Of a world where their work is all to do, Where you style them, you of the little wit, Old Master This and Early the Other, Not dreaming that Old and New are fellows: A younger succeeds to an elder brother, Da Vincis derive in good time from Dellos.
-- St. 8. Much they reck of your praise and you!: the Michaels and Rafaels. Leonardo da Vinci (b. at Vinci, in the Val d'Arno, below Florence, 1452); "in him the two lines of artistic descent, tracing from classic Rome and Christian Byzantium, meet." -- Heaton's `History of Painting'. Dello di Niccolo Delli, painter and sculptor, fl. first half 15th cent.
9.
And here where your praise might yield returns, And a handsome word or two give help, Here, after your kind, the mastiff girns, And the puppy pack of poodles yelp. What, not a word for Stefano there, Of brow once prominent and starry, Called Nature's Ape and the world's despair For his peerless painting? (see Vasari.)
-- St. 9. "Stefano is extolled by Vasari as having left Giotto himself far behind, but it is very difficult to ascertain what were really his works." -- Heaton. "Stefano appears from Landinio's Commentary on Dante to have been called `scimia della natura', the ape of nature, which seems to refer to the strong realistic tendencies common to the school." -- Woltmann and Woermann's History of Painting. Giorgio Vasari, an Italian painter of Arezzo, b. 1512, d. 1574; author of `Vite de' piu excellenti pittori scultori ed architettori'. Florence, 1550.
10.
There stands the Master. Study, my friends, What a man's work comes to! So he plans it, Performs it, perfects it, makes amends For the toiling and moiling, and then, `sic transit'! Happier the thrifty blind-folk labor, With upturned eye while the hand is busy, Not sidling a glance at the coin of their neighbor! 'Tis looking downward makes one dizzy.
11.
"If you knew their work you would deal your dole." May I take upon me to instruct you? When Greek Art ran and reached the goal, Thus much had the world to boast `in fructu' -- The Truth of Man, as by God first spoken, Which the actual generations garble, Was re-uttered, and Soul (which Limbs betoken) And Limbs (Soul informs) made new in marble.
-- St. 11. "If you knew their work", etc.: The speaker imputes this remark to some one; the meaning is, if you really knew these old Christian painters, you would deal them your mite of praise, damn them, perhaps, with faint praise, and no more. The poet then proceeds to instruct this person.
12.
So, you saw yourself as you wished you were, As you might have been, as you cannot be; Earth here, rebuked by Olympus there: And grew content in your poor degree With your little power, by those statues' godhead, And your little scope, by their eyes' full sway, And your little grace, by their grace embodied, And your little date, by their forms that stay.
13.
You would fain be kinglier, say, than I am? Even so, you will not sit like Theseus. You would prove a model? The Son of Priam Has yet the advantage in arms' and knees' use. You're wroth -- can you slay your snake like Apollo? You're grieved -- still Niobe's the grander! You live -- there's the Racers' frieze to follow: You die -- there's the dying Alexander.
-- St. 13. Theseus: a reclining statue from the eastern pediment of the Parthenon, now in the British Museum.