Bernardo Strozzi, Tobias Curing His Father's Blindness

1630-35
Oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession 57.23

Instructed by St. Raphael at his back, Tobias rubs the gall of a fish into his father Tobit's eyes, curing his blindness. On the left are his wife and the dog that accompanied Raphael and Tobias on their journey to Media. The story is told in the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit:

Then the dog, which had been with them in the way, ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail. And his father that was blind, rising up, began to run stumbling with his feet: and giving a servant his hand, went to meet his son. And receiving him kissed him, as did also his wife, and they began to weep for joy. And when they had adored God, and given him thanks, they sat down together. Then Tobias taking of the gall of the fish, anointed his father's eyes. And he stayed about half an hour: and a white skin began to come out of his eyes, like the skin of an egg. And Tobias took hold of it, and drew it from his eyes, and immediately he recovered his sight. And they glorified God, both he and his wife and all that knew them.

The dates suggested by the museum for this painting coincide with Strozzi's time in Venice. That may account for the color he gave Raphael's hair, which one Wikipedia page calls "Venetian blond." People of that city have told me this color is a mark of true Venetian ancestry. In other images Raphael's hair is almost always blond or dark blond.

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Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.