Robert Browning is an English poet and is mostly famous for his dramatic monologue. The poem Andrea Del Sarto is also written in the same form. Here are the summary and analysis of Andrea Del Sarto.
The poem Andrea Del Sarto is published by Robert Browning in 1855 poetry collection, Men and Women.
The poem is also known as The Faultless Painter.
Andrea Del Sarto is not some fictional name, he was an Italian painter from Florence.
The poem Andrea Del Sarto is written in dramatic Monologue.
Dramatic Monologue is “A poem in the form of a speech or narrative by an imagined person, in which the speaker inadvertently reveals aspects of their character while describing a particular situation or series of events” Lexico
Robert Browning’s poem Andrea Del Sarto has a melancholic tone and pessimism towards art.
The poem Andrea Del Sarto is narrated by Renaissance painter Andrea Del Sarto and he is talking about his wife Lucrezia and his work of art.
They live in Florence. (Robert Browning and his wife’s home were also in Italy, Florence).
Andrea begs his wife Lucrezia to stay with him so that he would work better.
His wife says that Andrea has to sell his painting to her friend, then she will be by her side.
Andrea says to her wife Lucrezia that firstly, she has to promise that she will hold his hand and sit with him by the window and from there they can view Florence.
He explains that the only way to end his melancholy is the closeness with his wife.
He says that her smile can take him away from melancholy.
He considers himself a failed artist because his wife Lucrezia has lost her interest in him and because he has only one talent that is the ability to create faultless paintings.
Although he gets appreciation for his work, his contemporaries Rafael and Michel Agnolo are far better than him.
He knows that they both have the ability to catch heaven while he is stuck with the earth.
He observes closely a painting whose imperfections he can easily fix but he cannot fix the soul.
He blames his wife Lucrezia for lack of inspiration and says that an artist who is more successful is not married. He blames marriage for an unsuccessful career. He thinks that an unmarried person can focus better on his career.
In the past, when Lucrezia used to feel proud of him he was in France but because of Lucrezia, they settled in Italy. There he brought a nice house and had money but he lost the gem of an artist.
He says that fate has decided their companionship and he hopes that future generations will forgive him for his incompetency.
On one side, he blames Lucrezia for his failure but he also asks her to stay by his side, so that he would be able to gain his confidence back.
At the end of the poem, he again gets sad and justifies and praises his work.
He again mentions that his wife is a reason for his failure but he also justifies it too by saying that she was his choice.
He allows her to go with her cousin at the end of the poem.
Robert Browning wrote the poem, Andrea Del Sarto, in Iambic Pentameter.
