In a single poem only Browning touches those problems of the artist life which were to occupy him in the 'Fifties; and the _Pictor Ignotus_ is as far behind the _Andrea del_ _Sarto_ and _Fra Lippo Lippi_ in intellectual force as in dramatic brilliance and plasticity.

Browning's sanguine and energetic temperament always inclined him to over-emphasis, and he has somewhat over-emphasised the anaemia of this anaemic soul.

Rarely again did he paint in such resolute uniformity of ashen grey.

The "Pictor" is the earliest, and the palest, of Browning's pale ascetics, who make, in one way or another, the great refusal, and lose their souls by trying to save them in a barrenness which they call purity.
The musician as such holds at this stage an even smaller place in Browning's art than the painter.

None of these Lyrics foreshadows _Abt Vogler_ and _Hugues of Saxe-Gotha_ as the _Pictor_ foreshadows _Lippi_ and _Del Sarto_.