One of four known versions, this picture represents a popular caravaggesque composition which, in common with the works of so many artists is derived in style from Manfredi. The essential elements are dramatic lighting of half-length figures arranged frieze-like in the composition. The subject is a common one in Baroque art. Tobias leaves his father the blind Tobit accompanied by the Archangel Raphael. It allows the artist to concentrate on the emotional drama of departure, just as the emotion of return was so often depicted in the return of the Prodigal Son.

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