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Cock, Maerten de
Coastal Mountain Landscape with Tobias and the Angel
1620s

Two young men, one taller and apparently older than the other, walk along an elevated path, against the backdrop of an expansive sea below and a rocky coastline with mountains in the distance. The shorter figure carries a large fish under his arm, identifying the scene as an episode from the journey of Tobias. The apocryphal Book of Tobit tells how Tobias is sent by his father to collect a debt from a kinsman far away, accompanied and guided on his journey by Azarius—the archangel Raphael in disguise. When Tobias is attacked by a large fish (6:2), his companion instructs him to catch it and remove its gall, heart and liver (later used to drive away the demon that plagues Tobias’s wife Sarah and to cure his father’s blindness). This depiction shows Tobias carrying the fish and continuing on his way, although the original text indicates that the fish was roasted and eaten immediately after yielding its precious harvest.

 
Cock, Maerten de
Antwerp, Belgium around 1578–Rome, Italy around 1661
Coastal Mountain Landscape with Tobias and the Angel
1620s
Oil on copper
18.1 x 27.0 cm
Gift of Alfred and Isabel Bader, 2012
55-013.02

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