Andrea del Sarto.

(Called "The Faultless Painter".)



In this monologue, "the faultless painter" (Andrea 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: --

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