Death Comes to the Archbishop and Painterly Sight
Willa Cather's Death Comes to the Archbishop began with Cather's interests in Puvis de Chavannes' frescoes of Saint Genevieve (see the engraved panel above). Cather's novel shares with Chavannes' work a classical Virgilian simplicity which moves from focusing on key figures to a sense of static setting. Cather also mentions a portrait of St. Francis by El Greco that has been taken to the Southwest. Look at the following paintings by Chavannes and El Greco. Ask yourself what these images reveal about human action, character, setting, and spirituality. How can these images be compared to the tone and structure of the novel?
