3-102-275 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The Angel Departing from the Family of Tobias', 1637, (1967). Alternative title: The Archangel Raphael Leaving Tobias' Family. Biblical scene from the apocryphal Book of Tobit: Tobit, Tobias' father - a second Job, blinded despite a life that was pleasing to God - sent his son to recover a sum of money to provide for his wife after his death. In the course of his journey, the young Tobias, guided by an angel, caught a fish with whose liver he later restored his father's eyesight. Then he recovered the money, found himself a wife, and returned home with her. Here she is seen standing in the doorway praying, next to Hannah, Tobit's wife. The scene represents the moment when the four characters realise that Tobias' travelling companion who had helped him in his undertaking was an angel of the Lord. The angel, having fulfilled his mission, soars toward heaven. Old Tobit, cured of blindness, is deep in prayer, and his son looks up reverently. Each of the women behind is preoccupied with her own experience, and between them is the frightened dog. Painting in the Louvre, Paris. From "Rembrandt" by Ludwig Münz and Bob Haak, [Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1967]