Daan Buringa

Actor

Tobit is a very finely painted depiction of a blind man: his eyes are open, but they reveal only the whites, without irises or pupils. He sits pleadingly in his chair because he cannot do anything. Anna gives him a kid goat (also beautifully painted), so that he will be occupied for a while and she can get away from his complaints and demands. She looks at him sternly, fiercely, full of frustration. Apparently, in Rembrandt’s time people with disabilities brought nothing but misery with them, for themselves and for others: contagious wretches. 

All this certainly calls for a good sense of humour: Anna gives the kid to Tobit and pretends it is a lamb. After all, Tobit cannot tell the difference. She said this little lamb could help him to get up and become more independent. As 'With his beard white as snow - wherever Tobit went - the lamb was sure to go.' 

Krista Milne

Associate Professor at Leiden University, Principal Investigator of the DISMANTLE-project

This painting stands as an example of the representation of blindness in early modern European art. It is often assumed that in early modern Europe, blindness was viewed as a punishment from God, but the reality is more complex. This is exemplified by the ways in which Rembrandt and his contemporaries depicted the story of Tobit and Anna.

Rembrandt portrays Tobit as a devout man who is deeply concerned that his wife may have sinned, although this concern later proves unfounded. A dog, right beside his chair, looks directly at you. However, in the version of Tobit's story in the Latin translation of the Bible (the Vulgate), the dog is the travelling companion of Tobias, Tobit’s son, and it is therefore remarkable that Rembrandt depicted the dog as a companion to the blind father.

In some retellings of Tobit's story, the dog is depicted as a guide dog for the blind. An ordinance from Leuven dating from 1490 describes how a scene from Tobit's narrative should be depicted in a tableau presented by a group of glassmakers: ‘And behind this woman shall come an old, honourable man who is blind, called [Tobit] … and he shall be led by a dog or by a servant.’

As this example shows, Tobit’s assistance dog, or guide dog, is part of an artistic tradition of depicting guide dogs that can be traced back to the end of the Middle Ages. My research at Leiden University examines this artistic tradition and investigates how guide dogs and assistive devices were used in the past and how they are represented in historical sources.

Anne Lenders

Curator of 17th-Century Paintings

When Rembrandt painted Tobit and Anna in 1626, he was working as an independent master painter in Leiden. He was still at the beginning of his career, but you would not know it from the painting. He rendered the fabrics and other materials with great precision, and paid close attention to depicting the faces realistically. For the skin, he used pinkish and yellowish tones, while the wrinkles are painted in more brownish colours. Rembrandt was already remarkably good at conveying human emotions, which he was exploring early in his career. The despair felt by Tobit is clearly visible in his face, while Anna’s bewildered expression is also striking. Rembrandt did not make his subjects more beautiful than they were in reality, portraying them instead as they truly were, with all their natural features and facial characteristics. This gives his figures a lifelike and convincing quality. 

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