ANDREA DEL SARTO, one of Brown ing's most famous drinatic monologues, is founded upon the life of the Italian painter as given in Vasari's 'Lives,' and is an attempt to explain the meaning of the portrait that del Sarto painted of himself and his wife, Lucrezia, which now hangs in the Pitti Gallery at Flor ence. The poem comprises 272 lines of blank verse, and was first printed in the second volume of 'Men and Women' in 1855. An drea, though called the "faultless painter') by his contemporaries, lacked some essential qual ity (according to Browning, elevation of mind, aspiration) that enabled such painters as Michel angelo, Raphael, and Leonardo, though inferior in technique, to surpass him. Browning finds in Andrea's infatuation with Lucrezia, which has led to sacrifice of character and artistic ideals, the key to this defect. This is brought out as the painter discusses himself and his art in a monologue addressed to his wife, as the two are seated in the dusk at a window of his house looking toward Fiesole. The poem is a three-sided study of character: of an artist who has failed to attain his ideal and who knows why he has failed; of a man who has lost his self-respect; and of a lover who has given his all without return; and yet this artist, man, and lover, though disillusioned and hopeless, is content. The theory of art implied
in the poem grows out of the character por trayal and is incidental to it; and, as is usual with Browning, this philosophic element is ren dered human and "dramatic" as the natural ut terance of the speaker under the given circum stances. The quiet and restrained style of the monologue,. easy and colloquial, reflects the mood of the speaker and seems colored by the autumnal silver-gray of the outer world. Few poems leave so profound and distinct an im pression; few are so subtle and so rich in sug gestion. As a picture of Renaissance life and character, Andrea del Sarto should be read in connection with its companion piece, Fra Lippo Lippi, to which it forms an utter contrast. In such studies Browning shows himself not only the greatest master of the dramatic monologue, but also of all poets the most profound student of the Renaissance, and the most successful in making poetry out of the subjects with which it provided him. Among the many criticisms of Andrea del Sarto may be mentioned that given by Mrs. Orr in her 'Handbook); by George Willis Cooke, in his 'Browning Guide Book,' and by Albert Fleming, 'Browning So ciety Papers? (No. 8, 2:9).