* 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: --