''Tobias and the Angel'' is an oil on canvas painting by

Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, also called Girolamo da Brescia (c. 1480–1485 – after 1548), was an Italian High Renaissance painter active mostly in Venice, although he also worked in other cities in northern Italy. He is noted for his subtle use ...

, created ''c.'' 1527. It is held in the

Galleria Borghese The Galleria Borghese () is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate tourist ...

, in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, since 1910. The Galleria's director Giulio Cantalamessa saw the work in a private house in

Tivoli Tivoli may refer to: * Tivoli, Lazio, a town in Lazio, Italy, known for historic sites; the inspiration for other places named Tivoli Buildings * Tivoli (Baltimore, Maryland), a mansion built about 1855 * Tivoli Building (Cheyenne, Wyoming), a ...

and corrected its misattribution to

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

. It hangs in the Sala dell Aurora.

Description

According to the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, the archangel Raphael helped the young Tobias during a dangerous journey, until he obtained the antidote to cure his father's blindness, from the entrails of a fish that had tried to bite him while crossing a river. Savoldo represents the moment in which the angel tells the young man to catch the fish, while the little dog that accompanied them appears curled up at the bottom right. The artist concentrated on some details, such as the treatment of the drapery with silvery flashes, most evident in the angel's dress, that appears as if wet, and in the details derived from a naturalistic observation, such as the light that pierces the foliage, or the particular atmospheric sensitivity of the clouds that veil the landscape in the distance. The sentimentality, on the other hand, refers to Giorgione's calm pastoral tones. Physically, the angel with long hair and delicate features closely resembles the one depicted by

in the ''

Averoldi Polyptych The ''Averoldi Polyptych'', also known as the ''Averoldi Altarpiece'', is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Titian, dating to 1520–1522, in the basilica church of Santi Nazaro e Celso in Brescia, northern Italy. It is signed "Tic ...

'', painted a few years earlier for a church in

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

. In the kneeling young man, the artist placed all that immediate realism typical of the Brescia Renaissance masters, of which he was a member, particularly in the flesh, very alive and sanguine, or in the natural pose that overshadows the face. Stefano Zuffi, ''Il Cinquecento'', Electa, Milano 2005. Moreover, the representation of this scene is singular, because it does not fit into the pictorial tradition which most often depicts Tobias and the Angel walking. Here it is a pause and Tobias, instead of being represented by a young teenager, is a young man full of energy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tobias and the Angel (Savoldo) 1527 paintings Paintings by Girolamo Savoldo Paintings in the Borghese Collection Paintings depicting Tobias Paintings of Raphael (archangel)