Published · Angel Oil Paintings editorial desk
Raphael and Tobias: Identifying the Journey
The journey of Raphael and Tobias is identified through its story as well as its familiar fish and travelling companions. Perugino’s altarpiece panel and a painting from Verrocchio’s workshop offer two documented ways of showing it. [1][2]
The story behind the fish
Tobit 6, in the New American Bible presented by the USCCB, describes the young traveller, called Tobiah in that translation, journeying with an angel and a dog. A fish is caught, and the angel instructs him to keep its heart, liver and gall. These belong to the narrative’s later episodes of deliverance and healing. They should be understood here as elements of the story. [3]
Tobit 12 explicitly identifies Raphael when he reveals himself to Tobit and his son. This supplies a firmer basis for naming the companion than the mere fact that a painted figure has wings. [4]
Perugino: a panel within an altarpiece
Perugino’s The Archangel Raphael with Tobias, about 1496–1500, is National Gallery NG288.3. Tobias carries the fish, while Raphael holds a small box. The Gallery places the work in the lower tier of an altarpiece made for the Duke of Milan. It also explains that the lower edge was cut down, leaving only the dog’s head visible. [1]
The fragmentary appearance of the dog is therefore connected with the physical history of this panel. It should not be interpreted as a deliberate omission from the narrative. The museum discusses the Book of Tobit in relation to the Roman Catholic Bible; the book’s canonical status is not identical across religious traditions. [1][2]
A workshop painting of the same journey
The National Gallery attributes Tobias and the Angel, about 1470–5, to the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. Its description identifies Raphael and Tobias, the fish and the dog. Drapery blown behind the figures helps communicate their movement. The possibility that Leonardo contributed particular details is presented as a suggestion, not as a settled attribution of the whole painting. [2]
These are two different physical objects. Sharing a narrative does not make the Verrocchio workshop picture a part of Perugino’s altarpiece, nor does it justify transferring a date or dimension between their records.
What to check in another example
Look for the exact institutional title, the named participants and the episode described. Then check whether fish, dog, box or travel document are actually present and discussed. A generic guardian angel with a child should not become Raphael and Tobias solely because the figures walk together.
Where a work survives as part of a larger ensemble, read the entry for the whole altarpiece as well as the individual panel. Original placement and later cropping can explain details that appear puzzling in an isolated photograph.
| Detail | Perugino, NG288.3 | Workshop of Verrocchio, NG781 |
|---|---|---|
| Attribution | Pietro Perugino [1] | Workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio; most of it by an unidentified member of the workshop, with Leonardo's hand in the fish and the dog given as a suggestion [2] |
| Date made | About 1496–1500 [1] | About 1470–5 [2] |
| Support and size | Oil on wood, probably poplar; 113.3 × 56.5 cm [1] | Egg tempera on wood; 83.6 × 66 cm [2] |
| The fish | Held by Tobias, freshly caught and gutted [1] | Held by Tobias, freshly caught and gutted, with the red line of the slit stomach visible [2] |
| The box | Held by Raphael; it holds the heart, liver and gall [1] | Held by Raphael; it holds the heart, liver and gall [2] |
| The dog | Only the head is visible at the bottom, because the lower edge was cut down in the eighteenth century [1] | Travels with the pair; the entry treats it as one of the details possibly added last [2] |
| Also in the picture | A landscape continuous with the two companion panels, The Virgin and Child with an Angel and The Archangel Michael [1] | The receipt for the debt, labelled ricordo, in Tobias's other hand, and draperies rippling behind the figures [2] |
| Where it belonged | The lower tier of an altarpiece made for the Duke of Milan, in the Certosa near Pavia [1] | Not recorded in the entry [2] |
Every cell comes from the National Gallery entry for that painting. The two are separate objects: sharing the story of Tobit does not carry a date, a dimension or an attribution from one record to the other. [1][2]