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The Misanthropic Painting or Settling on Account with the Almighty Mother: The Vivisector ‐ Patrick White's Universal Work of Art
Author(s) -
Burman Beyla
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0730.1984.tb00510.x
Subject(s) - painting , vision , white (mutation) , meaning (existential) , hero , work of art , musical , lyrics , art , aesthetics , literature , philosophy , visual arts , epistemology , theology , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
Patrick White's The Vivisector (1970) is the first universal work of art in world literature in which the art of painting and music are presented in the artistic form of language. To be able to exemplify this I have chosen one of the most important paintings, Lantana Lovers under Moonfire. In my account I allow the nine different levels that I have found in the world of The Vivisector to overlap each other ‐ with the exception of the musical level, which is presented last. At the historical level it is the concrete events that appear, while Hero and Olivia reveal their attitude to art in their “lives” at the socio‐cultural level. The visionary level allows the reader to follow how the vision of the idea emerges to Hurtle out of his conflict with the past, and it is also here that the importance these three persons are to have for each other is foreshadowed. At the pictorial level Hurtle tackles his conflicts and cuts himself loose from the straitjacket of the past. The symbolic level complements the two levels just mentioned in that the symbols clarify the meaning of the visions and the painting. At the religious level we learn of Hurtle's as yet incomplete insight into the existence of the Evil One in God and, at the animus‐anima level, fear of the Almighty Mother drives him to start to seek his anima. The failure of his initiation is related at the mythical level and finally the events are recapitulated at the musical level.