104. _The dying Alexander._ A piece of ancient Greek sculpture at
Florence.
108. _To submit is a mortal's duty._ The supreme beauty of the statues
led men to content themselves with admiration and imitation.
113. _Growth came._ New life came to art when men ceased to rest in the
perfect achievement of the past, and found a new realm opened up to them
in representing the subtler activities of the soul. Lines 145-152 state
the ideals that actuated the new art. The reference is to the religious
art of the Italian Renaissance.
115-144. These lines sum up the reasons for the importance of the art
that strives "to bring the invisible full into play" (l. 150). It may be
rough-hewn and faulty; but it is greater and grander than Greek art
because of its greater range, variety, and complexity, and because it
reaches beyond any possible present perfection into eternity.
134. _Thy one work ... done at a stroke._ Giotto when asked for a proof
of his skill to send to the Pope, drew with one stroke of his brush a
perfect circle, whence the proverb, "Rounder than the O of Giotto."
156. _Quiddit._ Quibble. The humorous rhyme "did it--quiddit" is but one
of the many whimsical rhyming effects in the poem. The use of a light,
semi-jocose form to give the greater emphasis to serious subject-matter
is characteristic of Browning. Lowell in "A Fable for Critics" employs
the same device.
161-176. Not Browning's usual attitude. Even this poem is a deification
of progress through effort, not through repose.
178. _Art's spring-birth._ Nicolo the Pisan and Cimabue lived in the
second half of the thirteenth century. From them to Ghiberti
(1381-1455), who made the famous bronze doors of the Baptistry at
Florence, and Ghirlandajo (1449-1494), a Florentine fresco painter, was
a period in which Browning was especially interested. Mrs. Orr says that
he owned pictures by all the artists mentioned here.
192. _Italian quicklime._ Many of the fine old Italian fresco paintings
have been whitewashed over.
198. _Dree._ The pictures "endure" the doom of captivity. But they might
be ferreted out if the ghosts of the old painters would only indicate
where the lost works are.
201-224. He does not hope to get pictures of the famous Florentine
painters, Bigordi (probably another name for Ghirlandajo), Sandro,
Botticelli, Lippino (son of Fra Lippo Lippi), or Fra Angelico. But he
might hope for better success in finding pieces by the obscure painters
mentioned in lines 205-224. These painters are so described that we know
concerning each one, some characteristic quality or work.