Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, 1735. Giovanni Battista Pittoni. Oil on canvas. Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust.
Pittoni is the most Rococo of 18th-century Venetian painters as can be seen in the light, fragmented rhythms of this picture of Saint Bartholomew's martyrdom. By order of King Astrages of Armenia, Bartholomew was flayed, or skinned alive, for refusing to worship pagan idols, one of which is on the plinth to the left. This is a study for an altarpiece formerly in the Basilica of Saint Bartholomew in Padua, and is a finished modello, intended to be shown to the patron for approval.
