Tobias and the Angel
Ancient Israelites regarded dogs as unclean, and they are "seldom represented elsewhere in the Bible as man's friend", another element suggesting the origin of the story in neighbouring cultures.
[9] In the relief on a corner of the Doge's Palace in Venice (illustrated below) Raphael holds a scroll on which is written: "Efficia fretum quietum" ("Keep the Gulf quiet").
The subject had an appeal to merchants engaged in long-distance trade, and it has been thought that at least some paintings were votives for the protection of a young family member sent on a long business trip; some figures of Tobias may even be portraits.
[11] In a later part of the biblical story Tobias marries, perhaps a matter of days after he catches the fish, but in many depictions, especially Italian Renaissance ones, he looks much too young for this, even allowing for contemporary and ancient ideas of a suitable age for marriage.
This popularity lasted for about a century; small figures of Tobias and Raphael sometimes appear in the landscape backgrounds of more central religious scenes, such as a Virgin and Child by Lorenzo di Credi and an Adoration of the Kings by Filippino Lippi, both in the National Gallery.
[18] In the 17th century, the subject had a second life as a device to turn a Baroque landscape into a more prestigious history painting by adding small figures, dwarfed by their surroundings.
This reversed the relative proportions of the Florentine quattrocento depictions, which mostly had large figures at the front of the picture space and the landscape only visible through the gaps they left.
[20] Presumably discovered through European prints, the subject attracted a number of painters of Mughal miniatures, although their images depart considerably from the biblical story as they had probably never read the text, and mis-understood or deliberately changed many points.
[23] They are in the fairly close background, the two groups taking no notice of each other, a common feature of such images, reflecting the breach of the biblical space-time continuum in showing the different figures together in the same picture space.
[25] In a similar way neither the main figures nor the predella-like Tobias and the Angel within the Pala delle Convertite (Courtauld Gallery) by Botticelli and his workshop seem aware of the other group.
