The Artist

The unnamed narrator of Killing Commendatore is defined by his profession as a portrait artist, and the events in the novel describe his transition from "utilitarian" and unexperimental portraits that he paints solely for money (12) to a new style of expressive painting that he deems as more worthy of being called art. The change in painting style reflects the change the artist saw in Tomohiko Amada's work, and he comes to think of his own transition in style as being a product of his experience of Tomohiko's painting.

The artist is 36 years old, though he is resistant to modern technology and culture, and prefers quiet, solitude, and old fashioned technologies. Symbolic of this is his decision to throw his cell phone into a river early on in the novel (25). He feels at home in Tomohiko's remote mountaintop house, and enjoys listening to Tomohiko's large collection of opera...