The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew 1624

Curator: This etching is Jusepe de Ribera's "The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew," housed here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It's unsettling—that raw, exposed flesh rendered with such graphic detail. You can almost feel the excruciating pain. Curator: Ribera was deeply influenced by Caravaggio, and you see that stark realism here. But there's also the historical context: the Counter-Reformation embraced such depictions to inspire religious fervor. Editor: The labor involved in creating this print—the careful etching of lines to build tone and texture—is impressive. The way he uses line to suggest the stretching of skin is particularly effective. Curator: Absolutely, the image clearly had a public role in its time, reinforcing faith through dramatic, almost brutal, imagery. Editor: Looking at the social conditions in Naples during Ribera's time, this imagery also speaks to human suffering and the body, especially the laboring body, as a site of pain and resilience. Curator: A powerful testament, then, to the intersection of faith, politics, and artistic expression. Editor: It’s a striking demonstration of how materiality and social context intersect in the making of meaning.