The use of Italian painter Caravaggio’s work in Netflix’s , nominated for 13 Emmys, was no coincidence. The black-and-white show played heavily on light and shadow, something that the artist, known as “The Master of Light,” explored in his work. “Steve [Zaillian, showrunner] wanted to emphasize the play of light and shadow, not just in the world but also on people’s faces — the emotional reason why things wanted to [be felt] in monochrome,” says the show’s cinematographer, Robert Elswit, whose credits include and .
Elswit played with such contrast even further when showing the series’ main character, con man Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott), walking around churches in Italy. Churches, says Elswit, emit light through windows or from minimal overhead light fixtures, therefore casting a natural shadow on the world below them — a perfect fit for . One beautiful shot was when Ripley visits the San Luigi dei Francesi church in Rome, where three works of Caravaggio are famously housed.
Ripley inserts a coin in a coin box to illuminate the painting beyond it, which is something visitors do today. However, Elswit explains, the crew was not allowed to shoot at the actual church, so they re-created that particular element at a different, much larger church. “In the 17th century, there was no electricity,” explains Elswit about shooting the rest of the church scenes.
“You had the brightest day, but you couldn’t see the paintings well, so there must have been hundreds of candles. I shot a video while we were there, and we re-created it artificially. Tom is in a green box, essentially, and in post, they put the paintings in.
” The Caravaggios in the churches cause an emotional reaction in Ripley, who in other instances seems devoid of any human emotion, save for toward a few people and his own code of ethics. “He’s just so deeply moved when he looks up at the Caravaggio in Naples. He embraces all of this feeling — what he’s never felt for a human being.
He feels for the sort of beauty and art and architecture and the world of Italian culture that he walks into.” The combination of the Caravaggios in a church allowed the audience to see a different side to the man who lies and kills to thrive. “We were interested in how you as an audience feel about him, seeing him in these places,” adds Elswit, explaining that the Caravaggios are “clues” for the story to come.
When Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) first shows Tom , it foreshadows the violence Tom is about to inflict. When Tom murders his second victim, Caravaggio’s flashes in his mind. And of course, Caravaggio himself shows up in the finale, where viewers are prompted to draw parallels between Tom and Caravaggio, who was sentenced to death in 1606 for killing a man, which led him to flee Naples.
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