REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn
(b. 1606, Leiden, d. 1669, Amsterdam)

St Bartholomew

1661
Oil on canvas, 88 x 75 cm
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Catalogue number: 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.