How does this artwork elucidate its Subject?
The subject of the painting is taken from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit from the Old Testament.The painting showing the moment between Tobit and his wife Anna, early in the narrative, when the Tobit's faith in his wife's honesty is shaken. Tobit has been blinded in an accident, and to keep the family from poverty Anna works for the neighbours, for whom she makes cloth and sews clothes, and is paid in kind for her work. One day she receives a kid as wages and brings it home. Hearing the young animal's bleating, Tobit fears that his wife has stolen the animal and accuses her of committing a sin. Anna sharply denies the accusations, and Tobit begins to pray to God for death as release from suffering: "that I may be dissolved, and become earth".In the biblical narrative, the old couple's fortunes are eventually restored by their son, Tobias, with the aid and guidance of the angel Raphael, and Tobit is cured of his blindness by a magic fish caught by Tobias and Raphael in the Tigris.
Raphael Book of Tobit Tigris