Healing of Tobit

The Healing of Tobit — the episode from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit in which the angel Raphael oversees the restoration of the blind elder's sight through fish gall — was a popular Baroque subject that combined the miraculous with the domestic, setting divine intervention within a recognizable household scene. Bernardo Strozzi's 1635 canvas, now at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, was painted during his Venetian period and reflects the coloristic richness he developed under the influence of Titian and Veronese. The Hermitage's Italian Baroque holdings are among the world's greatest, assembled by Catherine the Great through massive acquisitions of European collections, and this Strozzi is part of a particularly strong group of Genoese and Venetian Baroque works. The angel Raphael's role as healer made this subject particularly meaningful in devotional contexts, and Strozzi's warm, humanizing treatment emphasizes the tender, domestic scale of the miracle.

Canvas with Strozzi's characteristic warm Venetian palette: amber, vermilion, deep ochre in the drapery and domestic objects. The application of fish gall to Tobit's eyes is the compositional focus — a small, precise action within a broadly handled interior. The angel's identity is registered through wings rather than divine radiance, making the celestial visitor physically present. Old Tobit's face receives careful tonal modeling to communicate age and blindness.