Browning art and character

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Browning art and character

Write a note on Browning’s attitude to art and life.

Robert Browning in his dramatic monologue s is particularly interested in the study of the psychological conflicts of men and women. In many of his poems, he has dealt with the Italian Renaissance artists who evaluated their lives in terms of success and failure. In Browning’s treatment artists are presented as the conscience of an age. To him. Artists symbolize the voice of humanity, expressing their inner thoughts in their works as well as reflecting their souls. Browning also deals with the problem of art itself hown one should make a synthesis between the fleshy and spiritual impulses in the work of art. The most famous poems in which he deals with art and artist or the life of the artists are Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea De Sarto, My Last Duchess, Abt Volger, and A Grammarian Funeral.

Fra LippoLippi is one of Browning’s happiest expressions of his belief in art and the joy of living. Fra Lippo was an artist who had to work in a monastery to paint the faces of the Saints and Angels. He tells the watchman who captivates him that the function of the artist is not to ignore the body and concentrate on souls, but to give equal importance that it deserves. He believes that an artist should paint all of god’s works and consider it a crime to allow any truth escapes him. This world is not meant to be despised and ignored as shameful and meaningless .So Fra Lippo says: “This world is no blot for us Nor blank-it means intensity it means good.” It is a gist of Browning’s philosophy. According to him, it is right to enjoy this world, for God has given it to us. But the religious father of the monastery ordered him to paint only the soul of ...

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... any trivial complement. Though the Duke is jealous and cruel, yet he appreciates and patronizes the life like picture of the Duchess, painted by the painter: “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall Looking as if she were alive”--- The life-like portrait of the duchess and the super piece of sculpture of Neptune’s taming a sea-horse are appreciated by the Duke because of their lively appearance.

In One word More, Browning’s attitude to art is very clear. Every artist, who lives and loves, wants to do something special for his beloved.

Browning believes that poetry or any form of art is closely related to life and its problems. He has no faith in the theory of ‘Art for Art’s sake’. For him art is for life’s sake and his poems on art, philosophy and religion indicate his stand that poetry and art should be intimately in touch with reality and life.

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