In artistic depictions, Bartholomew is most commonly depicted holding his
flayed skin and the knife with which he was skinned. Of this a well known example is featured in
Michelangelo's
Last Judgement. Not rarely, Bartholomew is shown draping his own skin around his body. Moreover, representations of Bartholomew with a chained demon are common in Spanish painting. St. Bartholomew is the most prominent flayed Christian martyr; During the 16th century, images of the flaying of Bartholomew were popular and this detail came to become a virtual constant of iconography. An echo of concentration on these details is found in medieval heraldry regarding Bartholomew, which depicts "flaying knives with silver blades and gold handles, on a red field." Saint Bartholomew is often depicted in lavish medieval manuscripts. Bearing in mind that manuscripts are in fact made from flayed and manipulated skin, they hold a strong visual and cognitive association with the saint during the medieval period. Florentine artist
Pacino di Bonaguida, depicts his martyrdom in a complex and striking composition in his
Laudario of Sant'Agnese, a book of Italian Hymns produced for the Compagnia di Sant'Agnese . In the five-scene, narrative-based image, three torturers flay Bartholomew's legs and arms as he is immobilised and chained to a gate. On the right, the saint wears his own skin tied around his neck while he kneels in prayer before a rock, his severed head lying on the ground. A further depiction is that of the
Flaying of St. Bartholomew in the
Luttrell Psalter –1340. There, Bartholomew is depicted lying on a surgical table, surrounded by tormentors while he is flayed with golden knives. Due to the nature of his martyrdom, Bartholomew is the
patron saint of
tanners,
plasterers,
tailors,
leatherworkers,
bookbinders,
farmers,
housepainters,
butchers, and glove makers. In works of art the saint has been depicted being skinned by tanners, as in
Guido da Siena's reliquary shutters with the
Martyrdoms of St. Francis, St. Claire, St. Bartholomew, and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Popular in
Florence and other areas in
Tuscany, the saint also came to be associated with salt, oil, and cheese merchants. '' by
Jusepe de Ribera (1634)
The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew (1634) by
Jusepe de Ribera depicts Bartholomew's final moments before being flayed alive. The viewer is meant to empathize with Bartholomew, whose body seemingly bursts through the surface of the canvas, and whose outstretched arms embrace a mystical light that illuminates his flesh. His piercing eyes, open mouth, and petitioning left hand bespeak an intense communion with the divine; yet this same hand draws our attention to the instruments of his torture, symbolically positioned in the shape of a cross. Transfixed by Bartholomew's active faith, the executioner seems to have stopped short in his actions, and his furrowed brow and partially illuminated face suggest a moment of doubt, with the possibility of conversion. The representation of Bartholomew's demise in the National Gallery painting differs significantly from all other depictions by Ribera. By limiting the number of participants to the main protagonists of the story (the saint, his executioner, one of the priests who condemned him, and one of the soldiers who captured him), and presenting them half-length and filling the picture space, the artist rejected an active, movemented composition for one of intense psychological drama. The cusping along all four edges shows that the painting has not been cut down: Ribera intended the composition to be just such a tight, restricted presentation, with the figures cut off and pressed together. |214x214px Although Bartholomew's death is commonly depicted in artworks of a religious nature, his story has also been used to represent anatomical depictions of the human body devoid of flesh. An example of this can be seen in
Marco d'Agrate's
St Bartholomew Flayed (1562) where Bartholomew is depicted wrapped in his own skin with every muscle, vein and tendon clearly visible, acting as a clear description of the muscles and structure of the human body. This idea has influenced some contemporary artists to create an artwork depicting an anatomical study of a human body is found amongst with
Gunther Von Hagens's
The Skin Man (2002) and
Damien Hirst's
Exquisite Pain (2006). Within Gunther Von Hagens's body of work called
Body Worlds a figure reminiscent of Bartholomew holds up his skin. This figure is depicted in actual human tissues (made possible by Hagens's plastination process) to educate the public about the inner workings of the human body and to show the effects of healthy and unhealthy lifestyles. In
Exquisite Pain 2006,
Damien Hirst depicts St Bartholomew with a high level of anatomical detail with his flayed skin draped over his right arm, a scalpel in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other. The inclusion of scissors was inspired by
Tim Burton's film
Edward Scissorhands (1990). Bartholomew plays a part in
Francis Bacon's
Utopian tale
New Atlantis, about a mythical isolated land, Bensalem, populated by a people dedicated to reason and natural philosophy. Some twenty years after the ascension of Christ the people of Bensalem find an ark floating off their shore. The ark contains a letter as well as the books of the Old and New Testaments. The letter is from Bartholomew the Apostle and declares that an angel told him to set the ark and its contents afloat. Thus the scientists of Bensalem receive the revelation of the Word of God. File:Last judgement.jpg|Michelangelo's
Sistine Chapel depiction. File:Bartholomaeus San Giovanni in Laterano 2006-09-07.jpg|Statue of Bartholomew at the
Archbasilica of St. John Lateran by
Pierre Le Gros the Younger. File:Apostle Bartholomew Helsinki Cathedral.jpg|Statue of Saint Bartholomew by August Wredow at the roof of the
Helsinki Cathedral File:San Bartolomeo Scorticato.jpg|
St Bartholomew Flayed, by
Marco d'Agrate, 1562 (
Duomo di Milano) File:Das Martyrium des hl. Bartholomäus oder das doppelte Martyrium Öl auf Leinwand 250x285cm 2014-15 (1).jpeg|
The Martyrdom of St. Bartolomew or the Double Martydom Aris Kalaizis, 2015 File:Shield showing three flaying knives, symbol of St. Bartholomew.jpg|Shield showing three flaying knives, symbol of St. Bartholomew, at the
Church of the Good Shepherd (Rosemont, Pennsylvania) File:Pertteli.vaakuna.svg|St. Bartholomew pictured in the coat of arms of
Pertteli == Culture ==