Skip to main content

Salvator Rosa, 'Landscape with Tobias and the Angel', probably 1660-73

About the work

Overview

The apocryphal Book of Tobit describes how Tobit, a blind old man, sent his son Tobias to the distant city of Media to collect a debt. The boy was accompanied by the Archangel Raphael, protector of travellers. In this painting, Tobias struggles with a fish that had tried to devour him, as Raphael informs him that its heart, liver and gall bladder could be used for medicine (these organs would later restore Tobit’s sight).

Salvator Rosa liked to build up dark, heavy forms in the foreground of his paintings; here, a cliff face rises up on the right, its lower half in a deep shadow that is interrupted by the gleam of a gushing waterfall. The figures are small within this dramatic landscape: Tobias, holding the fish, struggles against the current, watched by Raphael and a little dog. Above, a flight of birds leads our gaze from the rocky gorge to the open, mountainous landscape and menacing clouds beyond.

Key facts

Details

Full title
Landscape with Tobias and the Angel
Artist
Salvator Rosa
Artist dates
1615 - 1673
Date made
probably 1660-73
Medium and support
oil on canvas
Dimensions
147.4 × 224 cm
Acquisition credit
Bought, 1959
Inventory number
NG6298
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images