ANDREA DEL SARTO – BROWNING

ANDREA DEL SARTO – BROWNING

§  It is also called ‘The Faultless Painter’.

§  This dramatic monologue is narrated by Renaissance painter Andrea del sarto to his wife Lucrezia.

§  Andrea del Sarto was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism.

§  Though highly regarded during his lifetime as an artist senza errori (‘without errors’), his renown was eclipsed after his death by that of his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

§  Andrea begs Lucrezia that they end a quarrel over whether the painter should sell his paintings to a friend of his wife’s.

§  He acquiesces to her wish and promises he will give her money if she will only hold his hand and sit with him by the window from which they can survey Florence.

§  He admits to feeling a deep melancholy, in which “a common grayness silvers everything”(line 35) and hopes she can pull him from it.

§  He tells her that if she were to smile for him, he would be able to pull himself from such sadness.

§  Andrea considers himself a failure as an artist, both because Lucrezia has lost her “first pride” (line 37) in him and because he has only one talent: the ability to create faultless paintings.

§  Though many praise him for creating flawless reproductions, which he admits he does easily, with “no sketches first, no studies” (line 68), Andrea is aware that his work lacks the spirit and soul that bless his contemporaries Rafael and Michel Agnolo (Michelangelo).

§  Considering himself only a “craftsman” (line 82), he knows they are able to glimpse heaven whereas he is stuck with earthly inspirations.

§  He surveys a painting that has been sent to him and notes how it has imperfections he could easily fix, but a “soul” (line 108) he could never capture.

§  He begins to blame Lucrezia for denying him the soul that could have made him great, and while he forgives her for her beauty, he accuses her of not having brought a “mind” (line 126) that could have inspired him.

§  He wonders whether what makes his contemporaries great is their lack of a wife.

§  Andrea then reminisces on their past. Long before, he had painted for a year in France for the royal court, producing work of which both he and Lucrezia were proud.

§  But when she grew ‘restless’, they set off for Italy, where they bought a nice house with the money and he became a less inspired artist.

§  However, he contemplates that it could have gone no other way, since fate intended him to be with Lucrezia, and he hopes future generations will forgive him his choices.

§  As evidence of his talent, he recalls how Michelangelo once complimented his talent to Rafael, but quickly loses that excitement as he focuses on the imperfections of the painting in front of him and his own failings.

§  He begs Lucrezia to stay with him more often, sure that her love will inspire him to greater achievements and he could thereby “earn more, give her more”.

§  Lucrezia is called from outside, by her cousin, who is implicitly her lover, and Andrea begs her to stay.

§  He notes that the cousin has “loans” that need paying, and says he will pay those if she stays. She seems to decline the offer and to insist she will leave.

§  In the poem’s final section, Andrea grows melancholy again and insists he does “regret little …would change still less”.

§  He justifies having fled France and sold out his artistic integrity and praises himself for his prolific faultless paintings.

§  He notes again that Lucrezia is a part of his failure, but insists that she was his choice. Finally he gives her leave to go to her cousin.

§  Andre Del Sarto is unique in Browning’s dramatic monologue oeuvre because of its incredibly melancholic tone and pessimistic view of art.

§  Andrea de Sarto was a Renaissance painter who was regarded highly by his contemporaries because of his technical skill.

§  Michelangelo was especially fond of Del Sarto’s work, and it was he who introduced Giorgio Vasari to Del sarto’s studio. Vasari, however, was highly critical of his teacher, alleging that, though having all the prerequisites of a great artist, he lacked ambition and that divine fire of inspiration which animated the works of his more famous contemporaries, like Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael.

§  Browning links this shortcoming with several other issues, principally Sarto’s marriage to an unfaithful wife, Lucrezia del Fede, whose constant demands for money for her family and lover led him to neglect his own parents and misappropriate money given him by Francois I of France.

§  She is the interlocutor of this dramatic monologue.

§  Who is mentioned as ‘serpaentine beauty’?  Lucrezia.

§  According to Browning twilight compares to? Life and art.

§  What picture does Browning like to paint? His wife.

§  How does he compare Lurezia to ? Madonna.

§  Del sarto is ? an Italian painter.

§  Which king is mentioned in Andrea Del sarto ? French kIng Francis.

§  In the opening of the poem, what is the request of del Sarto? To love him.

§  The setting of Andre Del Sarto is the painter’s studio in evening.

§  Andre Del Sarto was first published in the volume entitled Bell and Pomegranate.

§  Which painter alone has a wife? Andrea.

§  How Andrea’s parents died of? Poverty.

§  How much coins that Andre earn silver coins and for what? 13 silver coins and she needs to buy a frill for her dress.

§  “the urbinate who died five years ago”- whose death was referred in this line? Rafeal.

§  What is the cause of Andrea’s failure? The character of his wife.