Vertrek van de engel Rafaël 1556 - 1579

This engraving of the Departure of the Angel Raphael was made by an anonymous artist in the Netherlands. It illustrates a scene from the Book of Tobit, a story about faith and healing. What's interesting here is the way the artist uses visual cues to signal social hierarchies. The figures are arranged on different levels, the angel Raphael floats above as the human figures are kneeling below in a show of reverence. The architecture is an important element. The figures in the background are on a raised platform inside a building, and this is in contrast to the bare landscape in the background. Prints like these were made for a growing market of collectors. Looking at the inventories of 16th-century households gives us a sense of how they were used in domestic settings, as tools for education, moral instruction, and also as status symbols. As historians, we can use these sources to understand how art was embedded in the everyday lives of people in the past.