There’s so many details to take in within Milan’s magnificent Duomo it’s hard to know where to start. My eye was quickly drawn to this statue in the right transcept. Perhaps it was because of my background in medicine, but I needed to give it a closer look.
I didn’t know the full story time behind the piece then, so my first reaction was that this was a take on an anatomy lesson. The details of the musculature are spot-on accurate.
I soon learned that this gentleman was Saint Bartolomeo. The statue was crafted in the 16th century, but the story of Saint Bartolomeo dates to the 1st century. Saint Bartolomeo was one of the 12 apostles and a martyr, skinned alive by the Romans, then beheaded (the Romans were truly experts at using cruel ways to kill folks). His left hand holds a bible, and draped around his shoulder he wears his own flayed skin. The statue was crafted by Marco d”Agrate, a student of the great Leonardo da Vinci, in 1562. The anatomic detail is so precise I assume the artist used human cadavers to model it after. This was forbidden at the time, but was commonplace.
A little bit gross but an interesting piece with an interesting story.
