Saint Bartholomew

Getty Museum

Saint Bartholomew

Creator

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

Dutch Artist · 1606–1669

All works by this person →

The ninth child of well-to-do millers, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn was born in Leiden on July 15, 1606. In 1620, after two years at Leiden University, Rembrandt became the pupil of Jacob van Swanenburgh. He subsequently moved to Amsterdam to apprentice with the leading history painter in the Netherlands, Pieter Lastman, absorbing his colorful palette and eloquent narrative approach. After six mon

More on Getty ULAN

Object Description · Getty Museum

Made just eight years before Rembrandt's death, this painting depicts Saint Bartholomew holding a knife in his right hand, a reference to the fact that he was skinned alive when martyred. One of Rembrandt's neighbors may have posed as the model for the saint. By showing the apostle as a common man, Rembrandt gave the revered holy figure a tangible human quality, suggesting perhaps that holiness is part of daily life, a view in keeping with the religious atmosphere of mid-1600s Amsterdam. Saint Bartholomew appears pensive, almost melancholy in mood. He holds his chin as if lost in thought and his eyes seem to see beyond time. Rembrandt used a broader, freely brushed technique typical of his late mature style. Applied with a palette knife, thick areas of paint called impasto are visible on the saint's forehead, nose, ears, and hands. The overall handling of paint is much more expressive and contrasts with the smoother, more precise style of his earlier works.

Getty Museum’s catalogue record

produced_by.carried_out_by[0].id
https://data.getty.edu/museum/collection/person/3bac0bbc-4b79-4bb8-addd-a04e6053733d
Artist/Maker
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
subject_of[Homepage].id
https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RB6
Date
1661
Medium
Oil on canvas
Culture
Dutch
Object Type
Painting

Taken from LinkedCulture’s stored copy of Getty Museum’s record. A fresh capture of the museum’s own record has not been made for this object yet.

From LinkedCulture

A small knife rests quietly in his left hand - the instrument of his martyrdom - yet Saint Bartholomew looks less like a holy figure than a tired neighbor lost in thought. Rembrandt painted this Dutch oil on canvas in 1661, and he may have used an ordinary Amsterdam neighbor as his model. Thick ridges of impasto built up with a palette knife are visible across the forehead and hands, raw and sculptural up close. That choice to make a saint look so human is exactly why this painting still stops people in their tracks.

Written by LinkedCulture for its video on this object. Machine-generated (claude-sonnet-4-6), not yet reviewed by a person. It is not part of the museum’s record.

View at Getty Museum ↗

The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata. The fields above are the museum’s, under its own labels. LinkedCulture’s derived fields are listed separately below and marked as ours.

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page QR destination: https://linkedculture.org/q/q1.lNqm8POIy-sEgLPa.ysLHOZfjZlE-juyXfKo_zO6-ldOoqikjjcz5jlzrirGe3OBW1jpuNU2GehDfp35RwkWIGqHD85uG0YXj4idIXfkX2qi2odvk6mlsr1FjTFWgOLo6JYM-ztPyA698QteHASkAyKqXNgl7TE5FU6gCpRZbpPd_lfPFet8TZhUtYKPVKunxGl_yS1WgLo8yfEpBGztk6F3Fz3I1XKvGAH2KysYCsXELLvJPHxC5awK55QnyMQt3OliKE-fzo06CUGgilRqxM-Fxo68KF6ZCxZaBuNS5OQeoJO83QbOVSkghOa2PgslltES0IxxpfEVL_EqkN0IbgNoMEvceU6rVFFLQvmJuB3rCWmRwpTSwxSvAaCGPj-tmpCgWzrjXbnGlOBaKr7hjlflnVnzN5lJT5HyPSee at Getty Museum QR destination: https://linkedculture.org/q/q1.05sN9VotJbhVMwE1.iCTZCJY03BibzOq6OFbqo5edh8O0d2dzHUy83xIeROQACTTHTseLMyDnF6m1HblVa2sMqNLsYVAD6Hg3Zix94JdkCA3xP8lmWAJxdi_65qeldWrIiE9DcdkWdG1TxnURkH2lmt1t6HTtfptHpbNVVlkyLbBqGOhPgDHJArz5jw5bjgD81fI9KWAiDjqjgA1aWrYjYQjM17-DhYkwTbjJi4aelediyXpr5lfwwko4Wl7m1unUT2Yg5ZjpyoBWTF6PjoirO6WOUu7v6CPT_14-ZoFysI-4Xu9gElDgKVcis_3DW-qKop9DORr8P732RFVIVXxDEdshsqAlaIB37l_pYcKzV7dlF8b7l8UQ6n3d5n9RRBRGhrWlK_VflCY
Open this page
See at Getty Museum
How LinkedCulture maps this record

To search objects from different museums together, LinkedCulture reads each museum’s record into a common set of fields. The values below are LinkedCulture’s, under LinkedCulture’s names. They are not Getty Museum’s wording; the museum’s own record is shown above under its own labels.

Object ID
5de8cebd-36f7-4a33-8774-6ef21ca5da7b
Object Type
Painting
  • Getty Museum field “Object Type” · copied as is
Creator
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
  • Getty Museum field “Artist/Maker” · copied as is
Culture
Dutch
  • Getty Museum field “Culture” · copied as is
Medium
Oil on canvas
  • Getty Museum field “Medium” · copied as is
Department
Paintings
  • Getty Museum field “Department” · derived by LinkedCulture from the museum field · Getty's classification category is stored as department.
Credit Line
Gift of J. Paul Getty
  • Getty Museum field “Standard Credit Line” · the first available of several museum fields
  • Getty Museum field “Source Credit Line” · the first available of several museum fields
Date
1661
  • Getty Museum field “Date” · copied as is
Begin Year
1661
  • Getty Museum field “produced_by.timespan.begin_of_the_begin” · derived by LinkedCulture from the museum field
End Year
1661
  • Getty Museum field “produced_by.timespan.end_of_the_end” · derived by LinkedCulture from the museum field

The museum’s own record has not been captured for this object yet, so the museum fields shown above are limited to values LinkedCulture stored unchanged.

LinkedCulture video

Saint Bartholomew

Sep 13, 2026 · Short

YouTubeInstagram
Follow LinkedCultureYouTubeInstagramBluesky
Museum record

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.