01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Antonio de Comontes' The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, With Footnotes - #179

Circle of Antonio de Comontes (active Toledo, circa 1519)

The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew

Oil on panel

86.8 x 72.5cm (34 3/16 x 28 9/16in)

Private collection

Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He has also been identified as Nathanael who appears in the Gospel of John when introduced to Jesus by Philip, although many modern commentators reject the identification of Nathanael with Bartholomew.

Bartholomew is listed among the Twelve Apostles of Jesus in the three synoptic gospels and also appears as one of the witnesses of the Ascension;  on each occasion, however, he is named in the company of Philip. He is not mentioned by the name Bartholomew in the Gospel of John.

In art Bartholomew is most commonly depicted with a beard and curly hair at the time of his martyrdom. According to legends he was skinned alive and beheaded so is often depicted holding his flayed skin or the curved flensing knife with which he was skinned. More on Bartholomew

Antonio de Comontes (died around 1547), was a Spanish Renaissance painter active in Toledo in the first half of the 16th century.

Member of a family of artists, his brother and his nephew were painters; and as he was related to Juan de Burgundy. Antonio contracted with him in 1513 the tables of the main altarpiece and collateral of the church of San Andrés de Toledo commissioned by the ambassador in Rome and commander of the Order of Calatrava Francisco de Rojas , along with another altarpiece, lost, for the convent of Calatrava . The execution of all of them seems to be entirely the work of Comontes, more expressive on their faces than their teacher.  The altarpiece of the convent of the Concepción Francisca de Toledo is also his, with the main tables of the Embrace before the golden door and the Birth of the Virgin and a Calvary at the National Sculpture Museum, very close to the one that crowns the altarpiece of the church of San Andrés. More on Antonio de Comontes

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