Fra Lippo Lipi

570 Words3 Pages
Write about the ways Browning tells the story in lines 191-269 of ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ is a poem concerning a young painters life and the social as well as religious views surrounding his work. The painter, who is also a monk, is restricted from painting the realistic perception of the people and Browning uses many structural techniques to portray Lippi’s frustration. Browning tells the story in a blank verse as a dramatic monologue, directly addressing the situation and giving the poem a deeper meaning. The poem’s structure is imperfect with no rhyme and an imbalance of verses to lie in parallel with the central idea that paintings should be imperfect too. Browning’s use of voice portrays Lippo’s point by objectively capturing a character outside of himself. From line 191 and onwards there is a change in narrative and a rising action. This shorter passage represents an interruption to the chronology of Lippi’s life story. There is a significant change in narrative as the poem shifts to a philosophical debate about the purpose and importance of art. It consists mostly of dialogue, contrasting the prior self satisfied, hypocritical speech with Lippi’s own words. Browning opens the section with the exposition of character and a representation of the monologist. We learn that Lippi is different to other monks with reference to sexual fantasy. This difference allows him to paint ‘females with the breasts’ which is frowned upon by the church. This contrast of views exemplifies the relationship between realism and impressionism art. “A fine way to paint soul, by painting body” is the representation of spirituality and how Lippo believes fine art includes flaws of the body as opposed to using symbolism. Lippi lists all the ways of painting somebody realistically with constant questions to emphasize the debate about the nature of religion
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