Appearance of the Angel to the Family of Tobías

The moment the rank is disclosed

The Book of Tobit withholds its angel's identity until the last chapter, when the traveller tells the family what he is and departs. That disclosure is what the word appearance in this title points to: not an arrival, but the revealing of something present all along in another form. Seven entries in this catalogue record the Tobit story, and this is the one whose title names the family rather than the journey.

What the record holds

The catalogue dates the work to 1870 and gives Ignacio Merino, filed as Peruvian — the only Peruvian entry among the 224 works on this site. It measures 150 x 113 cm. The measured colour families are neutral and yellow. No location is recorded for this entry, so no collection is named here. The style field carries a single term, Surrealism, which sits oddly on this date; the catalogue records the tag as given rather than correcting it.

Named or not named

The archangel of this story is Raphael, and the title does not say so. Three of the seven Tobit entries name him; four, including this one, refer only to the angel. A catalogue built on hierarchy has to note that the difference is narrative rather than doctrinal: the rank is the same in all seven, and the titles differ only on whether they give away the ending.