Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper


Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper is a short collection of English poems by Robert Browning, published in 1876. The collection marked Browning's first collection of short pieces for more than twelve years. It received a mixed reception. The title poem, which ostensibly discusses the life and works of 15th-century Italian painter Giacomo Pacchiarotti, is actually a thinly veiled attack on Browning's own critics, in particular Alfred Austin, and many other pieces in the collection take the same tone.

Contents

PrologueOf Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in DistemperAt the "Mermaid"HouseShopPisgah-SightsFears and ScruplesNatural MagicMagical NatureBifurcationNumpholeptosAppearancesSt. Martin's SummerHervé RielA ForgivenessCenciajaFilippo Baldinucci on the Privilege of Burial
  • ''Epilogue''

Reception

William Lyon Phelps called the poem Pachiarotto "an error in judgment". Park Honan and Edward Irvine regarded it as indicating "a growing perversity not wholly attributable to old age, a new failure in self-control and more deeply in self-assurance."