ABSTRACT
Nabokov 's universe typically assumes the idiosyncratic colors, tone, or luminosity of an artistic epoch, nation, or painter-"early Florentine perspective," "cremes and crystals in a Flemish artist's detail," "Claude Lorra in clouds," "a stern E l Greco horizon," "Caravagesque light," a "mel lowly i l lumined Perugino," and so forth. Such references, not to mention the recurring presence in his novels of professional and amateur painters and other assorted characters associated wi th the visual arts, attest to Nabokov 's first artistic passion as a young man, drawing and painting, and to the abiding impact of art history on his imagination.
