I've never been affected by a piece of art quite like this one at Milan Cathedral. The most haunting artwork I've seen up close.

Marco d'Agrate carved his flayed man nearly 500 years ago, a rare example of an écorché in sculpture (a figure showing the muscles of the body without skin).

It depicts the fisherman Bartholomew, one of the 12 apostles, who brought Christianity to Armenia in the 1st century. Like many Christian martyrs, he suffered an excruciating death.

A common account tells that he was skinned alive by pagan priests, then beheaded, in punishment for converting the king of Armenia. The "cloak" you see draped over his shoulder is actually his own skin. Bartholomew wears it proudly, clutching the knife that flayed him. Every nerve and muscle fiber is visible.

Yet Bartholomew is completely stern in expression, quite literally wearing his own suffering. According to legend, he continued preaching to a rapt audience after his executors peeled off his skin.

The determined glare (and contrapposto stance) makes an interesting parallel to another great Renaissance work, Michelangelo's David. But d'Agrate went one further than Michelangelo: his subject is literally (and figuratively) stripped bare, with meticulous precision.

Holding firm convictions in life will always be met with extreme resistance, at one point or another. The sovereignty of your inner convictions in these moments must be unshakable.

To the dismay of Bartholomew's accusers, the stripping away of his physical body revealed only his profound inner strength — something they had not the authority to destroy.