As usual, I love how Granada fleshed out a story that bordered on the status of throwaway. The series features has featured a lot of art during its course, but only a certain will stand out thanks to camera work and lighting. When the filmmakers allow a painting to stand out even when the plot does not acknowledge it, it sometimes acts as a way to reveal character traits for any person watching. The paintings featured here show Professor Coram’s cultivated and religious personality that Doyle hinted in the original text. Watching this episode, I enjoyed the religious and Classical paintings found in The Golden Pince-Nez. Especially the giant fresco behind Coram’s bed at 21: 04. It looks very Neo-Classical, and if anyone knows who did it, let me know. For more noticeable artwork, if you watch the series at 15:04, you can see a Medieval or early Renaissance style painting of an angel behind Mycroft.
And what do we have here in the background at 38:09? Giovanni Bellini’s Doge Leonardo Loredan
In the story, I think I found an art history reference.
“Yes, sir, it is a crushing blow,” said the old man. “That is my MAGNUM OPUS—the pile of papers on the side table yonder. It is my analysis of the documents found in the Coptic monasteries of Syria and Egypt, a work which will cut deep at the very foundation of revealed religion. With my enfeebled health I do not know whether I shall ever be able to complete it, now that my assistant has been taken from me. Dear me! Mr. Holmes, why, you are even a quicker smoker than I am myself.”
Art History Ramblings 