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The Young Pope: Paintings from the intro sequence.
How does Paolo Sorrentino use art in his award winning drama-series.
When The Young Pope’s production team asked permission from the Vatican to film in Sistine Chapel they received a strong refusal.
The Vatican did not tell the reason for their decision. How could the Catholic Church agree to film a show that aims to reveal the corruption in its ranks?
A young cardinal, Lenny Belardo, gets elected as a Pope Pius XIII when the machinations of the leading contenders fail. In other words, Lenny becomes the Pope because of the Vatican’s own corrupt election procedure. To protect himself from his enemies, Lenny decides to purge the church from the corrupt and to take control of the Catholic Church by making its doctrine more conservative. This causes disruption both inside and outside of the church.
What makes this drama-series exceptional is its use of art masterpieces throughout the story.
In the intro to the show, for example, Jude Law, who plays the role of Lenny Belardo, passes 9 paintings. Each painting was carefully chosen by the show’s creator — Paolo Sorrentino. Each painting is tightly connected with the character of Lenny, with his past traumas and fears for the future.
Gerard van Honthorst, The Adoration of Shepherds
The first painting that Lenny Belardo passes by is a painting by Gerard van Honthorst called The Adoration of Shepherds. It depicts the Biblical scene of the birth of Christ.
This painting has a tragic history. It was almost completely destroyed after a car exploded in the carpark of Uffizi Gallery in Florence in 1993. The gallery wall had collapsed and the painting was buried under the rubble. It could not be recovered fully by the specialists.
Sorrentino connects Lenny Belardo’s tragic childhood with that of Honthort’s painting. Lenny’s parents left him in an orphanage, thus…
