This figure is of enamelled terracotta and made in the workshop of Andrea della Robbia
The figure is similar to others produced in the workshop of Andrea della Robbia depicting St Bartholomew. The apostle was flayed alive, and would have originally held the knife by which he met his death.
He is one of the Apostles mentioned in the New Testament, but by name only, there are no actions known related to him.
The Della Robbia family was an Italian family of sculptors and potters. They were active in Florence from the early 15th century and elsewhere in Italy and France well into the 16th. Family members were traditionally employed in the textile industry, and their name derives from rubia tinctorum, a red dye.
Luca della Robbia founded the family sculpture workshop in Florence and was regarded by contemporaries as a leading artistic innovator, comparable to Donatello and Masaccio. The influence of antique art and his characteristic liveliness and charm are evident in such works as the marble singing-gallery for Florence Cathedral. He is credited with the invention of the tin-glazed terracotta sculpture for which the family became well known.
His nephew Andrea della Robbia, who inherited the workshop, tended to use more complex compositions and polychrome glazing rather than the simple blue-and-white schemes favoured by his uncle.
Several of Andrea’s sons then worked in the shop. Marco della Robbia became a Dominican monk in 1496 but continued to execute sculpture. Giovanni della Robbia and Luca della Robbia the younger inherited the workshop and were responsible for adapting its production to 16th-century taste, influenced by contemporary Florentine painting.
Francesco della Robbia joined the Dominican convent of S Marco in Florence in 1495 but maintained links with the family shop.
Girolamo della Robbia was the only son of Andrea to continue the reputation of the family’s terracotta works beyond the mid-16th century. He spent much of his life in France, working for the royal court, often in collaboration with Luca the younger, who joined him there in 1529.
Figure in white enamelled terracotta. He stands the left hand holding a book, the right an emblem now missing, probably a sword. The base is shallow, rectangular and enamelled green, the eyes brown and black. Damaged and repaired, partly restored in painted wood, and mounted on a wooden background.
All that is known of him with certainty is that he is mentioned in the synoptic gospels and Acts as one of the twelve apostles. His name, a patronymic, means "son of Tolomai" and scholars believe he is the same as Nathanael mentioned in John, who says he is from Cana and that Jesus called him an "Israelite...incapable of deceit." The Roman Martyrology says he preached in India and Greater Armenia, where he was flayed and beheaded by King Astyages. Tradition has the place as Abanopolis on the west coast of the Caspian Sea and that he also preached in Mesopotamia, Persia, and Egypt. The Gospel of Bartholomew is apochryphal and was condemned in the decree of Pseudo-Gelasius. Feast Day August 24.