Student Question
Who is Giotto in Fra Lippo Lippi by Robert Browning?
Quick answer:
In "Fra Lippo Lippi" by Robert Browning, Giotto is referenced as a renowned Italian painter, known for his religious works praised for their spiritual focus. Giotto is depicted as emphasizing the soul over physical details, contrasting with Fra Lippo Lippi’s belief in accurately portraying the physical world in art. Browning likely knew of Giotto through Vasari's Lives of the Artists, although some paintings attributed to Giotto in Browning's time are no longer considered his work.
Giotto appears in "Fra Lippo Lippi" by Robert Browning in lines 189
sq.:
Here's Giotto, with his Saint a-praising God,
That sets us praising — why not stop with
him?
190
Why put all thoughts of praise out of our head
With wonder at lines, colors, and what not?
Paint the soul, never mind the legs and arms!
Giotto di Bondone (1266-67 – 1337) was a famous Italian painter, probably known
to Browning not only through his surviving works but through the biographical
information presented in Vasari's Lives of the Artists. The paintings
referred to may be a series on St. Francis that is no longer attributed to
Giotto, but was so attributed in Browning's period.
Browning's dramatic monologue was written in the voice of Fra' Filippo Lippi
(1406 – 1469), an artist also known to Browning through Vasari, who was rather
notable for his many sexual relationships and his belief that religious
painting should portray every physical detail of the world (God's creation)
accurately, in contrast to what he sees as the idealized iconography of
Giotto.
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