Landscape with Tobias and the Angel

The archangel Raphael was sent to guide the young Tobias on his travels to complete a transaction for his father, as recounted in the Catholic Old Testament Book of Tobit. One of the supernatural wonders that occurred before they returned home involved the fish that Tobias carries here. Following instructions from his companion (whose wings he cannot see), Tobias will later burn its liver in order to rescue his betrothed from the devil. Once home, he will use the fish's gall to heal his father Tobit's blindness.

The figures give this romantic landscape the high moral purpose associated with biblical subjects. As with many Flemish landscapes from this period, the overall view is framed by tall elements at each side, but then the viewer's eye is led in different directions with various pathways to the distance. there is also a strong demarkation of foreground and distance through the use of green and blue.The painting was once thought to a collaboration of two court painters: Denis van Alsloot, a landscapist, and Hendrick de Clerck, a figure painter, but this attribution is no longer accepted. There are various fine landscape painters working in Antwerp and also Brussels at this period and eventually it should be possible to arrive at an attribution.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.