“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” St. Bartholomew (Nathanael1) asks in the Gospel of John, and then immediately identifies Jesus as the messiah upon meeting him. The Lord called him “An Israelite in whom there is no guile.”
St. Bartholomew travelled to India and then Armenia, where he exorcises a demon and heals the daughter of King Polymius. The king and his household are baptized, enraging the king’s brother, who has Bartholomew either crucified, skinned alive, beheaded, or all three. The account of his flaying in the Golden Legend is the one that stuck in the imaginations of the medieval faithful.
Some of his relics (including bones and a piece of his flayed skin) are kept in San Bartolomeo all’Isola, Tiber Island, Rome. The basilica is over a thousand years old and built on the site of a temple to Asclepius, god of medicine and healing.
The dramatic nature of his death and its opportunity for artists to show off their anatomical skills led to a strong tradition of Bartholomew in art. Let’s begin with El Greco’s c. 1614 image, since he’s shown in triumph rather than torment, holding the flaying knife associated with his martyrdom while holding a chained demon to show his triumph over evil.
Bartolomeo Bulgarini (14th century) also leaves him with his skin, although he doesn’t look nearly so pacific as he contemplates the instrument of his torment.
A damaged 13th century fresco in Ferrara gives us three stages of the life of the saint: his baptism of King Polymius, his flaying, and his beheading.
Tiepolo’s 1722 Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew shows the moment before his skinning.
Joseph Proetzner’s 1755 statue at The Church of St. Peter in Munich depicts the intact saint holding his own skin.
The scenes continue in a fairly grisly fashion, such as thus one by Ignazio Perucca (around 1780).
Pompeo Bartolo’s 18th century oil also gives us the saint and his skin:
Pierre Le Gros (c. 1705-12) in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran:
St. Bartholomew Flayed (Marco d'Agrate, 1562, Duomo di Milano) is probably the most famous depiction of the apostle, but it’s more striking as a display of the sculptor’s anatomical skill than as a work of piety.
An etching by Jusepe de Ribera from the early 17th century:
Matteo Di Giovanni Di Bartolo (15th c) makes a striking use of red.
Matthias Stom, 17th c.:
St. Bartholomew, patron saint of skin diseases, leather tanners, and twitching, pray for us.
The double name is likely due to a patronymic: Bartholomew is bar (son of ) Tolmai.
One of my favorite bits of Bartholomew trivia is hi being the patron of cheese and cheese makers because someone noted that his flay knife looks a bit like a cheese knife 🤭
Oh geeze, this was rapidly getting into Uncomfortable territory, but finding out he's the patron saint of Twitching??? *shivers violently*