Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-64)
Tobias Demanding the Moneys Owed to his Father c. 1640
Red-brown oil paint on paper | 40.2 x 54.2 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 904066
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A drawing of an encounter between Tobias, with the archangel Raphael behind him, and a group of travellers with children and animals. The episode comes from the Apocryphal book of Tobit. The elderly and blind Tobit, sensing he was near death, sent his son Tobias from Nineveh to Media to collect a debt. He was accompanied by the archangel Raphael; during the journey Tobias caught a fish whose gall, Raphael told him, would cure Tobit’s blindness. The drawing shows the arrival at their destination of the angel and Tobias, trailing the fish.
Provenance
Probably Carlo II and Fernandino-Carlo Gonzaga, 9th and 10th Dukes of Mantua; Zaccaria Sagredo; from whose heirs purchased by Joseph Smith, British Consul in Venice, 1752; from whom purchased by George III, 1762
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Medium and techniques
Red-brown oil paint on paper
Measurements
40.2 x 54.2 cm (sheet of paper)
Object type(s)
