Tobit burying the dead 1647 - 1651

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, also known as Il Grechetto, created this print, "Tobit burying the dead", using etching. Castiglione lived during a time of significant social upheaval, against the backdrop of the Baroque era's dramatic contrasts and the Counter-Reformation's religious intensity. The print depicts a scene from the Book of Tobit, focusing on acts of charity and piety. I am intrigued by Castiglione’s choice to represent Tobit, a man who, despite his own misfortunes including blindness, risks everything to bury the dead, an act forbidden by the ruling authorities. Castiglione emphasizes the emotional weight of the scene through the somber tones and the hunched figures laboring in the shadows. This choice is both a reflection on the personal risks associated with religious devotion and a commentary on the social injustices of his time. Through the expressive lines of the etching, Castiglione invites us to reflect on our own responses to suffering and injustice.