3-072-057 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Madonna and Child (Obverse) and Tobias with Archangel Raphael (Reverse), c1460. The Virgin Mary is depicted against the background of a brick garden wall, from behind which cypresses, palm trees and orange trees are visible, which is probably an allusion to the 'closed garden' (hortus conclusus), a symbol of Mary's virginity and the Immaculate Conception. On the reverse, the Archangel Raphael leads Tobias by the hand, who is carrying a fish caught in the Tigris River. Tobias was sent to the city of Raga in Media to collect an old debt. On the way, he met a beautiful young man, on whose order he caught a fish in the river. This young man turned out to be the Archangel Raphael, and the bile extracted from the fish's entrails restored the sight of his blind old father. This story is recorded in the Book of Tobit in the Old Testament. The painting features the Latin text of a prayer to the Archangel Raphael, the patron saint of wanderers, which confirms that the painting had a 'protective' function.