FRANCESCO CURRADI | TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL

Private collection, New York.

The tales of Tobias and his companion, the Archangel Raphael, are told in the Book of Tobit from the Old Testament. In this painting, Tobias is represented wearing a richly decorated gold dress and holding a basket with the great fish he caught. According to the story, Raphael instructed Tobias to catch the fish that leaped out of the Tigris River and preserve its gall, heart, and liver. The gall would be used to cure his father's blindness, while the heart and liver would protect his wife, Sarah, from demons. The physiognomic similarity between the protagonists suggests that this could be a portrait of brothers commissioned as a devotional piece to the Archangel for good fortune. It is likely that this painting dates to the first decade of the seventeenth century, when Curradi, who predominantly painted religious subjects, also made a few portraits.

We are grateful to Prof. Francesca Baldassari for endorsing the attribution after firsthand inspection and for her assistance with the cataloguing of this painting.