# St Bartholomew [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 88 x 75 cm ## Commentary <a href="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/database/glossary/note03.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=300,height=400'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return false">Catalogue number:</a> Bredius 615. In 1661, Rembrandt painted a small group of half-length figures of apostles, each with a strongly individualized character. At present only four seem to be definitely from his hand, though others have been attributed to him. One of the four is this St Bartholomew and another, slightly distinct from the rest because Rembrandt used himself as the model, is St Paul. St Bartholomew holds his traditional attribute, the knife with which he was flayed to death. It is, of course, no more than a formal means of identifying him and as such was a common device in art. Apart from the knife, there is nothing in Rembrandt's painting to indicate that the figure is a saint; not even his clothes are obviously antique, and he grasps the knife as if he were about to cut something with it. Moreover, there is the curious accident that his short hair, parted almost in the middle, and his wide moustache give him the look of a man of the late nineteenth century. ## Related artworks - [A black drummer and commander mounted on mules; riding in profile]() - [A child being taught to walk]() - [A cottage beneath trees]() - [A girl sleeping]() - [A Man Laughing]() - [A man making water]() - [A Peddler Selling Spectacles \(The Allegory of Sight\)]() - [A Polish Nobleman]() - [A Scholar]() - [A two-humped camel]() - [A woman in Zeeland costume, from the back]() - [A woman in Zeeland costume, from the front]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()