Tobias and the Angel

Pieter Mulier, II · After 1684

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

196.9 × 248.3 cm (77 1/2 × 97 3/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

Tobias and the Angel is a quietly luminous work that brings one of the Bible's most beloved journeys to life through the warm, atmospheric handling typical of the late Baroque. Pieter Mulier II — known in Italy as "Il Tempesta" for the dramatic skies that defined his landscapes — spent much of his career working across the Italian peninsula, where he absorbed the influence of both the Dutch realist tradition and the grand Italian Baroque. Though celebrated primarily as a landscapist, his figure compositions show the same sensitivity to light and mood: figures emerge from soft, enveloping backgrounds rather than commanding the scene with theatrical force. In Tobias and the Angel, that restraint gives the encounter between the young traveller and his divine guide an intimacy that more declarative treatments often lose. Mulier's nickname, Il Tempesta, was earned through his stormy seascapes and brooding skies, which made him one of the most sought-after landscape painters working in Italy during the second half of the seventeenth century. This hand-painted oil reproduction is made to order on canvas, using traditional techniques that preserve the tonal depth and quiet drama of the original held at the Art Institute of Chicago — giving you a painting with the warmth and presence of a genuine oil work, not a print.