Workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio

In this panel from about 1470 to 1475, the Archangel Raphael walks with the young Tobias, who carries a freshly caught and gutted fish. The angel holds a little box with the fish's organs, which in the Book of Tobit will later heal the blindness of Tobias's father.

The National Gallery calls it the work of Verrocchio's workshop because most of it was painted by an assistant whose name is lost. One sign of studio practice is in the hands. Both figures seem to have exactly the same left hand, probably copied from a model book, the collection of stock poses a workshop kept for its members to reuse.

Two details stand apart from the rest. The fish, its scales catching the light like armour, and the small dog at Raphael's feet, painted in at a late stage, show very close observation, and it has been suggested that Verrocchio's pupil Leonardo painted them. The gallery bought the panel in Milan in 1867.