DELLA ROBBIA's TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL

ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA's TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL

The altarpiece today found in the Museum of Santa Croce in Florence in glazed terracotta
is a work by Andrea della Robbia of c.1460. In the center is an empty tabernacle opening with an arch above in which a bas-relief representation of Saint Bartholomew appears with the knife which is his attribute (he was flayed alive for his Christian beliefs.)  

The left side of the altarpiece shows St. Francis receiving the stigmata from a half-figure of Christ surrounded by seraphim in the sky, while Francis' companion, Leo, is seen from behind looking up at the same figure. Above St. Francis' head is a church at the top of a hill, presumably a reference to the location at La Verna where Francis received the wounds in his hands and feet and chest in imitation of Christ's wounds. (On a side note La Verna became an important Franciscan site which was decorated by the Della Robbia family in the 15th century, which might explain why the church in this bas-relief resembles the chapels actually on the site.)

 

      The right side of the altarpiece shows us two figures walking with a dog, one with wings and one holding a fish. The winged figure is the Archangel Raphael and the boy with the fish is Tobias, who caught a fish on his trip with the archangel and took medicine made from the fish innards to cure his father's blindness on the return from his trip (a story in the book of Tobit - see previous blog.) Raphael is holding a box for the
medicine in his right hand.
At the bottom of the altarpiece is a Latin inscription:
 SANTE E PATER BARTOLOMEE ORA PRO NOBIS
                                                   (Saint and Father Bartholomew, PRAY FOR US.)
                 

What a lot is going on in this altarpiece!  
Two name saints, Francis and Bartholomew, and the Archangel Raphael with his protege, Tobias. How can we account for all of these figures in one location in Santa Croce in the middle of the 15th century?
          In some altarpieces from this period we might assume that all of these names refer to patrons' names, choices that can be explained by the patrons' own wish to be remembered and protected in the
afterlife by their name saints. Such is certainly the case in the Peruzzi Chapel of Santa Croce where the patron, whose name was Giovanni, John, makes sure he covers all the bases by including in the decoration of that chapel the lives of both saints with that name, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist.
          In the case of this sculpted bas-relief altarpiece, however, other explanations are in order. St. Francis is here because Santa Croce is a Franciscan church, and, if the altarpiece was originally in the location of the cloister of this Franciscan church, in the Cerchi Chapel, where it appears at present, the
presence of Francis would be understandable.

 If, as seems likely, too, this chapel was used for the Confraternity of the Archangel Raphael for its prayers, the presence of Raphael and Tobias, along with the dog and fish, would be appropriate. Francis, Raphael, and Tobias, would all be good models of behavior to exhibit visually for the youth of the parish to follow in a room used for meetings of younger people under the auspices of the Confraternity of Raphael.
          But then, what about Bartholomew of the flayed skin? Why is he an "exemplum" for young people
to look to in learning about Christian values and proper behavior and manners?
          Bartholomew is given center stage here and called to in the inscription. But his figure is cut in half
and enclosed within an arch as a visual pun for the phrase:  San Bartolommeo della Capanna - Saint
Bartholomew of the Tent. Capanna in Italian means covered shelter or manger and was used in the 15th century to refer to the Manger in the Nativity scene, a scene reenacted by the youth in the community of Santa Croce in pageants on feast days. The group which gathered several times annually to present the Christian story was known as "Compagnia di San Bartolommeo detta della Capanna." This confraternity, much like the confraternity of Raphael, met in the Cerchi Chapel in the cloisters of Santa Croce as early as 1439, according to John Henderson, p.450, in his book Piety and Charity in Late Medieval Florence (1994). 
          Would that not explain then the presence of all three of these holy figures? The church is dedicated to Francis, a model for young boys, the confraternity of Raphael meets in the room of the altarpiece,
and Raphael is a model for Tobias and other youths. And Bartholomew is the model for another confraternity, the Compagnia di San Bartolommeo detta della Capanna, which puts on plays, either in the chapel room or out in the streets on floats, and whose feast day falls on August 24, a day certain never to be too cold to perform.  
          For boys growing up in Renaissance Florence, these splendid terracotta dramas presented on the altarpiece now in the Museo di Santa Croce would pronounce visually the moral excitement of leading the good life.

The words would echo the sentiments of the sermons heard in the room and echo the prayers to the holy Apostle who had been willing to martyr himself for his religion. The emphasis in the bas-relief, though,
is not on the horrors of martyrdom, or even of stigmata, but on the companionship of Francis with Leo
and Tobias with Raphael. The boys could see themselves in Tobias, with his dog and fish, and enter vicariously into the life of the Franciscan church through the glad stepping of the boy they see guided by the angel in the Della Robbia sculpture. Under the guidance of Della Robbia, these boys would have found themselves on familiar ground.

LIST of TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL PAINTINGS

LIST of TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL PAINTINGS

Here is a partial chronological list of Italian Renaissance paintings with the subject of Tobias and the Angel:

1465-70 – Antonio Pollaiuolo  - Tobias and the Angel

Original location – Vasari mentions a pilaster in Orsanmichele or the Mercanzia since Pollaiuolo did the Virtues around same time for the merchant court there.

Now – in Galleria Sabauda, Torino 

              

1470 – Botticini -  Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael with Tobias; large painting with 3 archangels and Tobias.Orig. location - unknown.

Now in Uffizi. 

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1475-80 – Filippino Lippi –  Tobias and the Angel Raphael, dancing feet (see previous blog on Lippi's Tobias and the Angel)

Orig. locat. unknown

Now in National Gallery, Washington, D.C.  

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1477-78 – Filippino Lippi – Tobias with three Archangels, large.

Orig. in Galilei family collection before coming to Torino.

Now in Sabauda, Torino. 

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1470-75 – Andrea Verrocchio – Tobias and the Angel

Orig. location unknown

Now National Gallery, London   

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1520 – Titian – Tobias and the Angel,

Orig. location-  Santa Caterina, Venice

Now in Accademia, Venice.

ALTARPIECES WHERE Tobias' story is secondary to Madonna:

1490-95 – Botticelli, Trinity, with Tobias and angel below crucifix

Orig. location - Santa Elizabetta delle Convertite, prostitute reform church in Florence.

Now in Courtauld Institute, London.

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1495 – Botticini – Virgin and child altarpiece with Raphael and Tobias on right of Virgin (viewer’s perspective).

Orig. location unknown

Now in Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh. 

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1496-1500 – Perugino, Madonna with Gabriel and child,altarpiece; left panel - St. Michael,

rt. panel - Raphael and Tobias.

Orig. location - Certosa di Pavia.

Now in National Gallery, London.

                                                                 

                                                              

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1513-1514 - Raphael - The Holy Family with Raphael, Tobias, and Saint Jerome, or the Virgin with a Fish
Orig. location - commissioned by Geronimo del Doce for the chapel of Saint Rosalie at the Monastery of San Domenico, Naples.
Now in Prado, Madrid, Spain

Notes from Prado website:

Provenance- Royal Collection (Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid, “Iglesia Vieja”, 1839)

Seated on a throne, the Virgin holds the Christ Child in her lap. On the right, Saint Jerome dressed as a Cardinal reads the Vulgata (The Bible he, himself, translated into Latin.)Below Jerome the lion that symbolizes him. The Archangel Raphael stands with Tobias, who holds the fish with which he will cure his father's blindness.
The use of color and the masterful composition whose apparent simplicity hides complex triangular, rectangular and diagonal forms, recall the Stanza d'Heliodoro painted by Raphael at the Vatican.
There are preparatory drawings for the present work at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, and at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edimburgh.
The Viceroy of Naples acquired this work for Felipe IV (1605-1665) and, after a brief period in the chapel of Madrid's Alcázar Palace, it entered the Monastery of El Escorial in 1645. From there, it entered the Prado Museum Collection.

OTHER TOBIAS WORKS OF ART:

Giovanni Santi, Tobias and angel, 1460?

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 Benozzo Gozzoli, pillar in S. Agostino, Tobias and the Angel, 1464-65, San Gimignano, Italy.

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Benozzo GOZZOLI, Montefalcone, San Francesco, 1446-61, Tobias’ face damaged.

 

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 Botticini, Tobias and angel, 1495, Old Sacristy, S.M. del Fiore, Florence.

Andrea del Sarto, 1514, Archangel Raphael with Archangel Gabriel, donor, dog, and Tobias, now in Vienna.

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Andrea del Sarto, Madonna and child with angel and saint (Paul?), 1522-23, now in Prado, Madrid.

Bartolommeo Sogliani, Madonna and child with St. Augustine and Tobias and angel.

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Bonifazio Veronese, 1520, Madonna, child, and Joseph, with Elizabeth and John the Baptist and Tobias and Angel, orig. Venice.

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Altobello Melone, 1521-23, Tobias and angel, now in Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

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Salvoldo, Tobias and the Angel, 1542, now in the Galleria Borghese, Rome.

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Titian, San Marziale, Tobias and the Angel, 1530:

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Cima da Conegliano, 1540, Madonna and child, with Tobias and angel:

END OF PARTIAL LIST

LIPPI's Tobias and the Angel

LIPPI'S TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL

Tobias and the Angel is a Jewish story which probably dates back to the 3rd century B.C., but it is introduced to readers in fifteenth-century Italy through the Book of Tobit in the Old Testament (included in the Vulgate Bible and Apochrypha for the Protestant Bible.) Because it is recorded in Greek versions of the Bible, too, it is a story discussed during the Council of Florence in 1439, when the members of the Greek church met with members of the Roman Church for reconciliation. Both Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic believers agreed that it was a story with ancient roots, a fact confirmed when fragments of it were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1952.
         It is unlikely, however, that the story gets painted in the 15th century only because of the 1439 meeting of the two churches, even though the examples we have in Italy of its visual representation occur after this date. Scholars now believe there are two other reasons for its appeal in 15th-century Florence. But, before we discuss those, let us learn about the story and about the paintings of it.
        The painting seen above is by Filippino Lippi, dated around 1475-80 and now in the Washington, D.C. National Gallery. It shows a young boy, Tobias, with the Angel Raphael, taking a journey with a dog on a road near a river with city towers in the background. Tobias holds a fish on a string and Raphael, who is older than Tobias and has wings, holds a small mortar and pestle in his right hand.

Tobias links his right hand to the left hand of the angel and the angel looks down on Tobias with affection.

We will speak about their feet in a moment, but first let us tell the story that is being painted.
         Tobias had an old father, Tobit, who was going blind, and the father sends Tobias on a journey from Nineveh to Media to retrieve some money owed Tobit. The Angel Raphael disguised as a friend accompanies him on this journey, and, as they travel, they come upon a fish in the river Tigris; Raphael advises Tobias to catch the fish and after some struggle, he does. The angel then says he must cut up the fish and use parts of the innards to fend off devils and parts to grind up into a medicinal mixture to take back to his father and apply to his eyes. Tobias listens to the angel and upon his return from his journey is able to cure his father's blindness. A dog accompanies both on the trip.
          In Filippino's lovely rendition of the story we see the traveling pair cum cane and dead fish. They are dressed in blue robe and tunic and Tobias wears a red mantle typical of Florentine cloth in the 15th century. The tower at the back looks like one of the towers of San Gimignano, and the extension of it in the river like the 15th-century walls of Florence in the Arno River.

The most beautiful section of the painting, though, is at the bottom, in the feet of the figures. Both the Angel Raphael and Tobias step with weight on the right leg, while lifting up the left leg in the air in preparation for another step. The feet are gracefully placed and foreshortened so that the viewer feels in the next moment he/she will see the left feet move forward together and step on the ground in front together. Lippi has caught the motion of the walking mid-way between one step and another and in capturing the apex of the left leg lift, he has forever captured the motion as a whole.We are encouraged to imagine the complete movement by virtue of the synchronized stepping of the feet.
The animation implied in an era before film is Lippi's way of paying homage to his painting master, Sandro Botticelli, who studied dance steps and probably read treatises of dance masters where each dance is described, step by step. The angel looks down at Tobias, almost as if he himself were a dance master making sure his ward's dance movement is properly carried out. I do not know of a more beautiful realization of two beings walking in harmony. (Even the dog lifts his left back leg in concert with the human beings.)

People used to think these images were painted in preparation for the journeys made by 15th- century Florentine merchants and their sons as a way of protecting them en route to European trading centers away from Florence. While the notion of a guardian angel is certainly made visible here, and the long journey alluded to in the road, river, and towers in the distance, the propitiatory qualities of the image are more likely to be connected to another feature of 15th-century Florentine merchant life.
           A book put out by Konrad Eisenbichler in 1998 called The Boys of the Archangel Raphael (1411-1785) describes in detail the places and activities where Florentine confraternities dedicated to the Archangel Raphael flourished in just this period. The first of these was connected to the church of Santa Maria Novella

 

and had a meeting hall with chapel and chapter rooms at the opposite end of the piazza in front of that church (in the building called the Loggia di San Paolo now - see map and photos.) The meeting place for that confraternity is mentioned in the Catasto (Florentine tax list) of 1427.

In these confraternities to Raphael boys were "kept off the streets" and taught prayers, appropriate manners, and given activities, like religious dramas, to keep them occupied and moral. The Angel Raphael was used as the model citizen for these boys to follow as guide; in return Raphael provided them with comfort in prayer and with the confidence that they were looked after by a deified superior being.
           Since the rooms of the Raphael confraternities were decorated with art (Eisenbichler provides inventories of these places), it is possible to imagine our Lippi painting as a decorative element in one of the rooms of one of the branches of the Confraternity in Florence. It is such a small painting, however, (only 32.7 x 23.5 cm  or 12 7/8 x 9 1/4 inches,) that it might well have been a devotional instrument to encourage prayers to the Angel Raphael in a private home. As such, we might look again at the figure of Tobias to see if a portrait or self-portrait is intended by Lippi there. Was Filippino Lippi himself a member of one of the Raphael groups? His father, the painter Filippo Lippi, had died in 1469 when Filippino was 12, just the right age for the boys in the confraternity. Botticelli takes over as his teacher, but could Filippino have found companionship near where Botticelli lived (in Via del Porcellana in Florence), in the Raphael Confraternity of Santa Maria Novella, just around the corner? That Filippino later paints a chapel in Santa Maria Novella may be more than due to patronage.

           For the painting now in Washington, D.C., Filippino Lippi took the image of the guardian angel and transferred to it the image of the dance master, teaching his charge to step in harmony with another being, and in the process, step in harmony with the natural world. The painting of Tobias and the Angel would have served a member of the Raphael Confraternity with a visual representation of how to lead a mission of healing, with a healing angel as guide. The journey painted here, then, would be a metaphor for the journey of life rather than an actual journey or a mythical narrative. The Archangel Raphael as mentor, in Lippi's hands, becomes the beautiful instructor of music, rhythm, and the art of the dance of life.