Tobit and Sarah kneeling in prayer before a fire

[France]: [16th century]

1 print : woodcut on paper; 6.4 x 8.8 cm

Bears French text on verso

Tobit and Sarah kneel on a tiled floor beside a canopied bed with curtains; a jug sits on a table to the left, a framed painting on the wall far left represents the archangel Rachel presumably appearing before Tobit; the scene is from the popular Old Testament story Tobit 7: 9-16. Tobit was a wealthy charitable Israelite but who suffered financial difficulties and blindess caused by cataracts; Sarah was the daughter of Tobit's relative whose seven successive husbands were each killed by a demon on their wedding night; they both prayed to God for deliverance and he, in turn sent the angel Raphael to heal them.

This work is untitled: the title has been supplied by the cataloguer

Wellcome Collection 3336347i

Purchased from Puttick & Simpson on 13th August 1909