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Notes
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Tobit, thinking he had not long to live, sent his son, Tobias, on a journey to a foreign land to collect a debt. Tobias was accompanied by a handsome young man (the archangel Raphael in disguise) who had been hired to be his companion and protector. The family dog went with them. In the course of the journey Tobias caught a fish in the River Tigris on the instructions of his companion. Following their return after collecting the debt Tobit is depicted sitting outside his house in Nineveh. His son, Tobias is anointing his eyes with the gall of a fish. The archangel Raphael, whose name means ‘God has healed’, is standing at the right. He points out to us what Tobias is doing on his instructions in order to cure miraculously his father's blindness.
Representations of incidents from the Book of Tobit go back as far as early Christian times. However, it was during the Renaissance in Italy that the subject became really popular, at which time the most frequently represented episode of the narrative was the actual journey of Tobias and Raphael – parents who had a young son travelling to different parts of Europe in those dangerous and uncertain times would sometimes commission or buy a devotional work of art depicting Tobias and Raphael on their journey and would pray that the archangel would similarly watch over their son.
Title
Tobias Restoring His Father's Sight
Date
1652
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 192 x W 157 cm
Accession number
B.M.34
Acquisition method
bequeathed by the Founders, 1885
Work type
Painting