About forty lines of _Fifine at the Fair_ are concerned with an extended comparison of a man’s treatment of his wife with his attitude toward an authentic Raphael which he has bought. In each case he makes much over the new treasure when it has first come into his possession, then seems neglectful, but in case of any danger, thinks first of his real object of affection, forgetting such light fancies as other women and Doré picture books. The comparison is further extended by likening the soul in its choice of another soul to finding satisfaction in art--poetry, music, and painting. The Italian artists, Bazzi, Raphael, and Michael Angelo, are named as examples in this connection. _Red Cotton Night-Cap Country_ contains a very Browningesque description of a soul, and pleads: “Aspire, break bounds! I say, Endeavor to be good and better still, And best! Success is nought, endeavor’s all.” * * * * * ... “there the incomplete, More than completion, matches the immense,-- Then Michael Angelo against the world.” _With Charles Avison_, _Cenciaja_, and _With Christopher Smart_ contain comparisons similar to those noted above. Eleven poems in all deal with Italian painters or painting as the principal theme. They are: _Pictor Ignotus_, _Old Pictures in Florence_, _The Guardian Angel_, _Fra Lippo Lippi_, _Andrea del Sarto_, _One Word More_, _A Face_, _Pacchiarotto_, _Filippo Baldinucci_, _With Francis Furini_, and _Beatrice Signorini_. Eight of these center around the work, personality, or history of a single artist. Of the eight, _Pictor Ignotus_, _Andrea del Sarto_, _Fra Lippo Lippi_, and _With Francis Furini_, are serious poetic efforts, having as the theme a painter’s endeavor, and dealing in each case with some shortcoming or lack of acknowledged success. Each of the first three, as poetry, is excellent in conception and execution. _With Francis Furini_, however, is rather didactic and heavy, lacking in lyricism and beauty. The failure of Pictor Ignotus was due to his high conception of art--so high that he could not bear to submit pictures of real worth to the world. With his extremely sensitive disposition he could not endure the thought of ignorant criticism by people who had no comprehension of the aim or purpose of the artist. Lippi failed to gain approbation because he would not sacrifice his conception of painting things as God made them to the misguided saintliness of the monks. Furini, according to Browning’s estimate, failed in part, because of his attitude toward the nude. Andrea del Sarto, the greatest failure in all Browning, possessed a masterly technique, but failed through his weakness of character. Of the later art poems, published after 1855, _With Francis Furini_ is the most serious effort. It contains an extended defense of the nude in art, the substance of which is summed up in the following quotations: