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Michelangelo's The Last Judgment - St Bartholomew holding the knife of his martyrdom and his flayed skin; it is conjectured that Michelangelo included a self-portrait depicting himself as St Bartholomew after he had been flayed alive.
During a talk at an archaeological society meeting I heard mention of St Bartholomew and a 'flaying knife' - or had my imagination run wild and it was a flying knife used by the saint. When I got home I looked up the
Wiki where we have quite a bit of info on the subject, much better than at other sites that came up on my search engine. Flaying is another word for skinning.
A dead animal can be flayed when preparing the meat as food - or to obtain its hide, or fur. This is more commonly known as
skinning rather than flaying. At this point we may note that flaying of humans became a form of torture and torment - which is why it was applied to St Bartholomew.
Flaying alive was an especially horrible form of punishment. It seems this is a practice going back a long way - deep into the depths of time. For example, we know from Iron Age Assyrian records that prisoners were on occasion flayed alive - usually resulting in their death via hypothermia, as an example. It is commemorated in royal edicts, and engraved inscriptions.
How long the practice had taken place before the Iron Age is an unknown factor.
Asurnasirapli II brags of flaying rebellious kings and officials. In Chinese history flaying was also common - of servants, officials, and rebels. The Ming dynasty was associated with flaying, at its inception and its passing. It therefore led to the ascendancy of the Ming - and also contributed to their downfall, via the mandate of heaven. One wonders what kind of flaying is implied in this tradition - perpetrated by humans, or by the gods. Or even with an origin in the heavens. Flaying was an occasional punishment in Europe, among the Vikings - and therefore inherited by the Normans. Hence, Edward I had three rebels flayed, and their skins were attached to three doors of Westminster Abbey, as a warning. They had been accused of robbing the treasury.
Comment: See also: