Notes from today's lesson on Pictor Ignotus

Context to the poem
The poem's title is Latin for 'unknown painter', a note that Browning would have seen written in art catalogues or on gallery labels when he was looking at Renaissance art.

This dramatic monologue begins abruptly, with the speaker's claim that he would have painted in the style of the youth whose work is evidently admired by the 'you' of the poem. This youth is usually understood to be the celebrated and influential painter Raphael, who lived from 1483 to 1520.

It is a psychological study of a man who is incapable of making full use of his talents, but is at the same time keenly aware of what he might have been, in contrast to what he is.

Implicit throughout this monologue is the sense of the painter's failure, both as an artist and as a human being.

Plenary
In this dramatic monologue, Browning presents the reader with an image of what a man such as Fra Bartolommeo (real life character this poem is suggested to be base upon) may have been like, stressing his timidity and portraying him as considering heaven and worldly success as two mutually exclusive ambitions.

Thus, Browning creates a speaker who can be regarded as a failure because he has retreated from life and failed to use the gifts he has been given (opposite of the Philosophy of the imperfect).

Browning’s aim in this monologue is to present/depict men complete with their failings and the compromises they’ve had to make to achieve success.

The speaker here justifies his failures by claiming to reject the commercialisation of art, but he also suggests that he realises he has wasted his talents and that his creative spirit has been quenched.

He may claim that the worldly successes and praise are transitory, but Browning leaves the readers in no doubt that these rationalisations cannot obscure the truth that he has buried his talents and passions (through his withdrawal).