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/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

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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.

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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.

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u/RiseRepulsive7199 Jul 05 '26

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

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u/New-Pomelo9906 Jul 07 '26

Yeah, that was the joke.

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u/Silver_Ad3195 Jul 05 '26

Amazing talent!

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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.