He claimed the physical as well as the intellectual and spiritual life of man as by origin and of right divine.

When, then, in harmony with a great change in social and literary life, the art of the Renaissance began to turn, in its early manhood, from the representation of the soul to the representation of the body in natural movement and beauty; from the representation of saints, angels and virtues to the representation of actual men and women in the streets and rooms of Florence; from symbolism to reality--Browning thought, "This suits me; this is what I love; I will put this mighty change into a poem." And he wrote _Fra Lippo Lippi_.
As long as this vivid representation of actual human life lasted, the art of the Renaissance was active, original, and interesting; and as it moved on, developing into higher and finer forms, and producing continually new varieties in its development, it reached its strong and eager manhood.

In its art then, as well as in other matters, the Renaissance completed its new and clear theory of life; it remade the grounds of life, of its action and passion; and it reconstituted its aims.

Browning loved this summer time of the Renaissance, which began with the midst of the fifteenth century.

But he loved its beginnings even more than its fulness.