Caravaggio in Caffrey Conversation

In canon, the artist Neal is most closely associated with is Raphael. In my stories, Caravaggio runs a close second. The Italian Baroque master is known for his dramatic use of chiaroscuro, a technique that contrasts light and dark. Chiaroscuro could be seen as a metaphor for the tension between Neal's former life and his new career at the Bureau.

I first referenced Caravaggio in The Woman in Blue, when Peter attended one of Neal's classes at Columbia. At the time Neal was working undercover for Klaus Mansfeld. This was my first story to feature a conflict between Neal's former and current paths. Later, Neal used chiaroscuro in the scenes he painted of the house where Rolf held him and Peter captive. Caravaggio's realism appealed to Peter. Unlike contemporary works, it was an art he could understand and relate to.

In An Evening with Genji when Neal wanted to give Peter and El a Christmas present, he presented them with a painting he'd made of the three of them stargazing at the Burkes' cabin in the Catskills. Although the subject was modern, he made a cheeky reference to his ability as a forger by painting it in the style of Gerrit van Honthorst, a Dutch painter who was greatly influenced by Caravaggio. It wasn't my intention to reference other Caravaggio works but I kept being pulled back to him. The links to Caffrey Conversation were simply too striking to be ignored.

In Echoes of a Violin, Peter jokes with Neal and Elizabeth about the significance of Caravaggio's The Fortune Teller. Neal praises El's ability to predict the future, but Peter teases her about the way the gypsy in the painting is stealing the ring of her client. The Fortune Teller is an Easter egg for the con the three of them will later run against the Mansfelds.

Another Caravaggio work, The Cardsharps, could be of Henry and Neal. When Neal selects the work for an art heist workshop in Nocturne in Black and Gold, he inadvertently causes Peter to speculate about what Neal and Henry would be like if they hadn't reformed. In the painting, an older man is directing the action and could be a symbol of the poor role models in the cousins' lives—Henry's father Robert, Keller, and Klaus.

In The Musicians, Caravaggio is at the heart of the theme. He painted several works with musicians as subjects and I chose two of them. Bianka also chose a Caravaggio for Neal to model. But unlike the musician paintings, the work she chose features a nude St. John.

The Musicians on Archive of Our Own
The Musicians on FanFiction