Tajemnica skóry – część II. Skóra - obszar pamięci, obszar doświadczenia w kulturowym i ikonograficznym wizerunku świętego Bartłomieja.

Tajemnica skóry – część II. Skóra - obszar pamięci, obszar doświadczenia w kulturowym i ikonograficznym wizerunku świętego Bartłomieja.

"The secret of the skin - part II. Skin - the area of memory and experience in the cultural and iconographic image of Saint Bartholomew.

Jowita Jagla

The symbolical phenomena of the skin has its own visual and cultural reflection in the centuries-old iconography of Saint Bartholomew in which the Saint is depicted in two different ways: either alone with the attribute of skin resembling a piece of cloth / coat / fabric or as a martyr who was or is being "stripped" from his skin. The low relief from the Cathedral in Peplin (13th/ 14th century), the seventeenth-century painting from the church dedicated to Archangel Michael in Sępopol and the nineteenth-century painting from the church in Płoskinia dedicated to Saint Katherine are examples of the former way of depicting Saint Bartholomew. Examples of the latter way of depicting the Saint include: compartments of the triptich from Niedzica (around 1450) and from Kamionka Wielka (around 1460), a painting from Byszew (15th century) and also two paintings of Michael Willman: one from the church dedicated to Saint Bartholomew in Trzebnica (1685) and one from the abbey-church in Lubiąż (1662). The act of killing Saint Bartholomew is shown here in a form of an absolutely brutal theatre, a "butcher's" play - Saint Bartholomew is stripped of his skin just like a brutally murdered, slaughtered animal. Skin begins to dominate in the early depictions of Saint Bartholomew. It is transformed into a separate, imitative entity that imitates the corporeality of the Saint - it has its face, hands and legs. In this case, such creation of the skin, in the likeness of man, is supposed to make its lost shape more realistic and thus bring it closer to the Saint and make it look like it was still connected with the body. At the same time, from the beginning of the 16th century, works, inspired by the anatomic iconography, the so called "écorché" - an anatomic model without its skin, depicting Saint Bartholomew alone, holding skin, start to appear (the anatomic image of "écorché" was present, among others, in the works of Berengario da Carpi or Andreas Vesalius). The popularity of the medical graphics was the reason of the dynamic, jumping, dancing, walking écorché becoming one of the most favourite motive of sculptors and graphic artists of the sixteenth century such as Baccio Bandinelli, Marco Ferreri d'Agrate, Willem van den Broeck. One of the best known examples of Saint Bartholomew as an écorché is the sculpture by Marco d'Agrarte from the Cathedral in Milan (1552/62) which is a hidden self-portrait of the artist.
In all of those depictions the cloak made of skin makes Saint Bartholomew a new man. Being stripped of the skin he is also stripped of his sins. The stripped skin changes Saint Bartholomew's body into a body that is unblemished and clean.

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