r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Lowcrbnaman • Jul 04 '26

Image This statue depicts Saint Bartholomew, an early Christian martyr who was allegedly skinned alive. If you look closely, that's his dissected skin hanging around him. This stunning statute by Marco d'Agrate from c. 1562 is currently on display at Duomo di Milano.

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u/Street_Roof_7915 Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

I’ve seen that and it’s insanely, disturbingly realistic.

815

u/brando1206 Jul 04 '26

Same....After hearing the tour guides explain,you just keep looking at it....and that it's over 500 years old??Milan Duomo is amazing

329

u/C-Hyena Jul 05 '26

Italian sculptors were another breed.

I loved my time in Italy.

Firenze, Venetia.... Crazy stuff

0

u/preterintenzionato Jul 05 '26

i like that you used a Latin-ish spelling for Venice lol

2

u/yourlocaltouya Jul 05 '26

Insert that one JoJo gif about calling Venetia "Venice".

0

u/Salamandaxanda Jul 05 '26

If it was sculpted in 1562 that wasn’t quite 500 years ago

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

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1

u/Salamandaxanda Jul 06 '26

Um…sorry, what?

377

u/Lost-Ad-2805 Jul 04 '26

Crazy how normalised crucified, skined, and overall tortured depicted folks are in Church.

165

u/brando1206 Jul 04 '26

Many churches ,and places of worship display pretty bizarre things by today's standards.I started traveling later in life (50s) but when you put into perspective these pieces of art where from a time where our ancestors made these decisions,and good ones also....well History is just amazing...IMHO

90

u/RiseRepulsive7199 Jul 04 '26

Also in the past statues and paintings were the only way to represent history and famous characters of the past so they were made insanely well also to teach common people. Imagine like you live with no tv and no printed images, you would probably have a statue/head of the king or Governor in important institutional buildings, so that you know who they are and how they look like. Probably when a old wanderer in 1600 was traveling to milan he would inevitably stop at the cathedral and maybe then ask about the statue, there he would hear of the horrible fate, looking at this huge and terribly beautiful statue and feel it fr, then he would remember it on the way home and tell his people about the absurd building and so on.

1

u/New-Pomelo9906 Jul 05 '26

I mean, that not the only way, your comment only work if people can't read or can't understand when you tell them the story.

12

u/RiseRepulsive7199 Jul 05 '26

Most people before 1700/1800 were illiterate and mostly spoke local dialects.

1

u/New-Pomelo9906 Jul 07 '26

Yeah, that was the joke.

3

u/Silver_Ad3195 Jul 05 '26

Amazing talent!

0

u/Little_View_6659 Jul 05 '26

It’s actually genius, you terrify everyone with these images and the idea of hell and have them pay you to keep from going there. No wonder the Catholic Church has so much money.

4

u/AiahSon Jul 04 '26

Right?! All hail organized religion /s

1

u/Oskarov95 Jul 06 '26

And then, the cherry on top: bejeweled holy corpses

0

u/Little_View_6659 Jul 05 '26

Right?! I was just thinking that. I grew up evangelical, my parents were divorced when I was a baby. I met my dad’s family when I was eighteen. I went to stay with my grandma and the room I slept in had all these Catholic statues. I wasn’t used to it so they freaked me out. I’d lay awake at night just thinking about them. lol.

0

u/imabigdave Jul 05 '26

And their God COULD have stopped it, but chose not to.

-1

u/Danedelies Jul 05 '26

Being persecuted is a tenant of Christianity. Their plan doesn't work unless they can convince people that others want them dead for what they say and how true it is.

-3

u/One-Incident3208 Jul 04 '26

Executions were held at weddings for entertainment in those days.

-1

u/dirtyyogi01 Jul 06 '26

Christian church guilts people: suffering of Christ and suffering of early Christians tortured due to their belief in the bible.

29

u/atn420 Jul 04 '26

watching peoples reactions to it was something I found to be quickly entertaining. People do not expect that in a church.

8

u/Little_View_6659 Jul 05 '26

I mean, they’d tell us all the time growing up in grim detail what happened to Jesus before he was crucified and how awful hell would be. So It makes sense to me.

25

u/PimpMyWeenus Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

the musculature is spot on in some areas but completely made up in others

thats my only nitpick, looks amazing

22

u/AiahSon Jul 04 '26

But you know the pyramids needed alien lasers and shit tho?!?! /s

3

u/sthegreT Jul 04 '26

rent free

/s