Cleveland Museum of Art

Lot and His Daughters

Lucas van Leyden

Date

1530

Medium

engraving

Culture

Netherlands, 16th century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Few Old Testament stories are more morally charged than that of Lot and his daughters. After fleeing the city of Sodom, Lot’s wife disobeyed God and looked back at the city and was turned into a pillar of salt. Believing that they were the last humans on earth, Lot’s two daughters conspired to intoxicate their father with wine to conceive children with him. Lucas van Leyden’s interpretation takes license with the episode’s moral impropriety, doubling down on its erotic content by showing the daughters as naked temptresses and Lot, much younger than described, overwhelmed with desire. The middle ground of this image depicts Lot leaving behind the salt-pillar figure of his wife with his two daughters trailing behind him. The nakedness of the figures and Lot's dejected posture echo representations of Adam and Eve being expelled from paradise.

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