Madonna with the Fish

The Madonna with the Fish (c. 1513–14) at the Prado, painted for a chapel in the Santissimo Crocifisso in Naples, depicts the Archangel Raphael presenting young Tobias to the Virgin and Child, with Saint Jerome attending. The subject — drawn from the Book of Tobit, the story of the young man guided by an angel disguised as a companion — served as an implicit self-referential image, the Archangel Raphael being the painter's own namesake. The combination of the Madonna and Child with Tobias's fish — a healing remedy in the story — gave the work its popular name. The painting demonstrates Raphael's Roman-period mastery of complex multi-figure composition in an intimate devotional format.

The rich, warm coloring and monumental figure arrangement demonstrate Raphael's mature Roman style, with the diagonal movement from Tobias through the archangel to the Virgin creating dynamic spatial flow.