Bonifacio Veronese (1487-1553)
Sacra Conversazione with Tobias and the Angel: Detail, St. Raphael brings Tobias to the Christ Child.

Tobias is identified by the fish hanging from his right hand. The jar in his left should refer to the healing ointment that he used to cure his father's blindness. Standing behind him is the Archangel Raphael, his guide in the Book of Tobit. According to the Glossa Ordinaria their relationship symbolizes that between the Son of God and the humanity that he assumed in the Incarnation. Thus these symbols of Christ, like living Christians, offer to the real Christ Child the jar that symbolizes their work of curing the blindness of their fellow men.

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Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.