Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" - Saint Bartholomew holding the knife of his martyrdom and his flayed skin

Flaying is the removal of skin from the body. Generally, an attempt is made to maintain the removed portion of skin intact.

An animal may be flayed in preparation for human consumption, or for its hide or fur; this is often called skinning. Flaying of humans is used as a method of torture or execution, depending on how much of the skin is removed. This is often referred to as "flaying alive". There are also records of people flayed after death, generally as a means of debasing the corpse of a prominent enemy or criminal. This article deals with flaying in the sense of torture and execution.

Flaying is distinct from flagellation in that flaying uses a knife in an attempt to remove skin (where the pain is incidental to the operation), wheras flagellation uses a whip or rod in an attempt to cause pain (where the removal of skin is incidental to the operation).

Flaying is apparently a very ancient practice. There are accounts of Assyrians flaying the skin from a captured enemy or rebellious ruler and nailing it to the wall of his city, as warning to all who would defy their power. The Aztecs of Mexico flayed victims of ritual human sacrifice. Searing or cutting the flesh from the body was sometimes used as part of the public execution of traitors in medieval Europe. A similar mode of execution was used as late as the early 1700s in France; one such episode is graphically recounted in the opening chapter of Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish" (1979). In China, a variant form of flaying known as Death by a thousand cuts was practiced as late as 1905.

Examples of flaying

• Tradition holds that Saint Bartholomew was flayed before being crucified
• In Greek mythology, Marsyas, a satyr, was flayed alive for daring to challenge Apollo.
• According to Herodotos, Sisamnes was a corrupt judge under Cambyses II of Persia who was flayed alive for accepting a bribe.
• In 260 Roman Emperor Valerian was taken prisoner by Persians. Some accounts hold that he was flayed and his skin turned into a footstool.
• Mani, founder of Manichaeism was flayed after being crucified or beheaded (c.275). His skin was displayed publicly to terrify his followers.
• Pierre Basile was flayed alive and hanged 6 April 1199 for shooting and killing King Richard I of England with a crossbow.

External links

• 1498 Painting: The Flaying of the Corrupt Judge Sisamnes, by Gerard David
• 1575 Painting: The Flaying of Marsyas, by Titian