Fra Lippo Lippi is a famous poem by Robert Browing. Here is the summary and Analysis of Fra Lippo Lippi.
Robert Browning is famous for his dramatic monologue. The poem Fra Lippo Lippi is also a dramatic monologue like many other poems of Robert Browning, as he is well recognized as the master of dramatic monologue.
Here are the summary and analysis of Fra Lippo Lippi.
The poem Fra Lippo Lippi is about the responsibility of an artist in portraying his art and about the purpose of the art.
The poem Fra Lippo Lippi by Robert Browning also about how sometimes an artist is forced to work on things that he himself does not like. However, in order to make his masters or authority happy, he has to work on certain things.
Robert Browning took inspiration for this poem after reading about Filippo Lippi who was a Florentine painter in the second generation of Renaissance writers.
At the beginning of the poem, Lippo Lippi who is a painter and also a monk is caught by authority figures due to his wandering in the red light area.
The policemen aggressively investigate him. However, he uses the reference of his friend (Cosimo of the Medici) from an influential family and they release him.
He addresses himself as the famous painter and says that they including him are too quick to bow down in front of the authority orders.
He tells the reader that he was in his room for the past three weeks and then he decided to have some fun but he got caught.
He asks the listener what he is considered a beast for if he does not pursue his beastly appetite.
Lippo tells his life story that he was an orphan and was starving until one day his aunt gave him over to a convent.
Monks asked him in his childhood if he is ready to leave all the worldly pleasures and habits and he agreed because he did not have any other option as he had no food. (convent can provide him plenty of food)
He was getting used to this life but rather than studying he had an interest in drawing.
He had a great insight into distinguishing people since his childhood.
The prior noticed his interest and assigned him to be the convent’s artist.
In the poem Fra Lippo Lippi, Lippo paints the real facts and realities of life. Many Monks appreciate his work as they feel they can relate to his work.
However the officials want him to reveal the soul rather than a body.
They insist that he should paint saintly images.
Lippo throws light on the world of the artist that a painter has the ability to reveal the soul through the depiction of the body.
Lippo tells the reader about the conflict between him and his masters.
He wants to portray the things as they are in reality in his painting while his masters want that he should paint from a moral perspective.
In order to be successful, he has to go with his master’s wishes, although he does not like it.
However, he cannot forget his artistic abilities to portray life as he saw throughout his life especially in his poverty-stricken childhood.
He mentions another painter Hulking Tom that in future he will also use his artistic abilities in his work.
In the poem, Fra Lippo Lippi, Lippo also asks his listeners what is better? to paint things as they are or to try to improve upon God’s creation.
He says that the artist has the ability to portray life as it is but they also have the ability to give insight to the people that they would be able to see things in a new light.
He gets angry that due to his masters, the purpose of art is diminishing but he quickly apologizes before the policemen get angry again on him.
