Guided Pathway

In the second quadrant, at lower left, six representations of Tobias and the angel continue the theme of guardianship. The Book of Tobit relates the adventures of a merchant’s son whose father sends him abroad on a business trip, during which he is protected by the angel Raphael. The numerous images of the pair produced in quattrocento Florence were understood by early twentieth-century art historians as votives commissioned by anxious parents before sending their own children on similar missions. The child “Tobiuzzolo,” as Warburg names him in the caption, is a prominent member of the atlas’s cast of recurring characters, returning in Panels 76 and 77.