The Healing of Tobit

c. 1625

Bernardo Strozzi

(Italian, 1581?-1644)

Culture

Italy, 17th century

Medium

oil on wood

Measurements

Framed: 57.2 x 80 x 10.2 cm (22 1/2 x 31 1/2 x 4 in.); Unframed: 42.7 x 65.5 cm (16 13/16 x 25 13/16 in.)

Credit Line

John L. Severance Fund and Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1993.5

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Location

Not on view

Description

This scene is the moving conclusion of the story of Tobias, the young man at the right. It addresses the themes of family devotion and trust. Tobias’s father sent him on a long journey to retrieve family money. The angel Raphael appeared as a relative, offering the traveler protection against such things as an attack by a huge fish, whose organs Tobias took on Raphael’s advice. Upon his return home, Tobias discovers his father has gone blind, and Raphael advises him to place the fish’s gallbladder on his father’s eyes to cure him. Strozzi depicts the miraculous cure and the moment in which Raphael reveals that he is an angel.