An extreme case may be found in that of a lady I once knew who had merely read the title of "Pacchiarotto and how he worked in distemper," and thought that Pacchiarotto was the name of a dog, whom no attacks of canine disease could keep from the fulfilment of his duty.

These Browning poems do not merely deal with painting; they smell of paint.

They are the works of a man to whom art is not what it is to so many of the non-professional lovers of art, a thing accomplished, a valley of bones: to him it is a field of crops continually growing in a busy and exciting silence.

Browning was interested, like some scientific man, in the obstetrics of art.

There is a large army of educated men who can talk art with artists; but Browning could not merely talk art with artists--he could talk shop with them.