Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Scene from the Book of Tobit

Artist: Ercole Setti (Italian, 1530-1617)

Medium: pen and brown ink on paper

Dimensions: 6 5/16 in. x 9 in. (16.1 cm. x 22.9 cm.)

Credit Line: Bequest of the Honorable James Bowdoin III

Accession Number: 1811.115

• James Bowdoin III( Collector, Boston) - 1811.
• Bowdoin College Museum of Art( Museum, Brunswick, Maine) 1811- . Bequest

• Old Master Drawings at Bowdoin College
  • Bowdoin College Museum of Art. ( 5/17/1985 - 7/7/1985)
  • Clark Art Institute. ( 9/14/1985 - 10/27/1985)
  • University of Kansas. ( 1/19/1986 - 3/2/1986)
  • Art Gallery of Ontario. ( 5/17/1986 - 6/29/1986)

The attribution of this sheet was apparently first made by Pouncey, as acknowledged by Vitzthum in "Drawings by Ercole Setti," Burlington Magazine, vol. 97, no. 629 (August 1955). The scene depicted comes from the apocryphal Book of Tobit and shows either Tobias embracing his blind father, Tobit, or an earlier scene where Tobias meets Raguel.

Commentary credited to David P. Becker (or not otherwise captioned) appeared in his catalogue Old Master Drawings at Bowdoin College (Brunswick: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 1985).