| Often employing a specifically painter's vocabulary and having invoked the names of over fifty-six different artists in his canon, John Updike has made it clear that for him art is more than a stock metaphor for beauty and eternality. Typically, references to painters are fully compatible with the content and style of his fictions; moreover, pursuing such references can lead to new insights, as well as offering an explanation for the seeming discrepancy between Updike's lavish style and common subject matter.; In the art world, an excessive or self-conscious style is but one characteristic of "painterly" work. Such a style also involves the reliance upon color and tonal contrasts to define forms, rather than upon the use of line. As a result, painterly work, lacking sharp divisions, creates areas of "middleness" and ambiguity which allow the eye to wander freely across the canvas.; Chapter One explores the evolution of Updike's painterly style in the early short stories, using references to Braque and Picasso to see how his descriptions reflect a gradual shift from Cubism and Minimalism to a more elaborate, subjective style.; Chapters Two and Three are extended formal analyses, showing how the pursuit of Updike's references to painters and painting can lead to revealing interpretations. Chapter Two situates The Poorhouse Fair in the context of Michelangelo's Last Judgment, while Chapter Three examines the ways in which Updike's suburban Pennsylvania fictions--including the Rabbit trilogy, Marry Me, and Of the Farm--are drawn in the manner of Jan Vermeer, the seventeenth-century Dutch painter who glorified common household scenes through his use of light.; In Chapter Four, the issue of the divided artist is discussed, with particular attention given The Centaur. Although Updike's characters are often failed artists, their failure cannot be accounted for as a simple lack of ability. Rather, Updike's artist-heroes experience conflicts between the artistic imagination and the everyday world, between mimesis and reality, and between the love of absolute formal freedom and an appreciation for detail and accurate representation. |
