Context: Andrea del Sarto (1486-1531), called "the Faultless Painter," sits on the balcony of his house in Florence with his faithless, mercenary wife, Lucrezia. His blind love for this woman who is incapable of understanding his work has ruined him both as a man and as an artist; he has taken money given him by Francis I of France for the purchase of paintings and used it to buy this house. He knows that, as an artist, he cannot "leave the ground;" that he has perfection of technique and nothing else. He knows also that his wife is unfaithful, yet he cannot break her hold on him. Like all weak men, he blames his failure on destiny: we have, he says, only the illusion of freedom of choice; in reality, we are helpless to shape our lives and must accept what comes to us.