Tobias wordt blind 1610 - 1649

This engraving, titled "Tobias wordt blind," presents us with a potent scene laden with symbols, drawn from the Book of Tobit. Note the swallows taking flight in the upper left of the scene, representing seasonal change, and the passage of time, and, by extension, Tobit’s fading eyesight. Similar avian imagery resurfaces in Egyptian hieroglyphs, where birds denote the soul's journey, and in Christian art, where doves embody the Holy Spirit. Here, the swallows herald a moment of crisis, an affliction sent to test Tobit’s faith. Observe the rooster, a symbol of vigilance, crowing obliviously in the lower right as Tobias, the father of the man the book is named for, succumbs to blindness. The rooster's symbolism stretches back to ancient Greece, where it was associated with the sun god Helios. Its presence serves as a melancholic reminder of the world outside, a world still visible, yet soon to be lost to Tobit. The rooster's crow, a stark contrast to Tobias's suffering, evokes a deep-seated psychological tension. Symbols such as these take a non-linear path through cultural memory, resurfacing, evolving, and taking on new meanings as time marches on.