Gentileschi, Artemisia (8) 아르테미시아 젠틸레스키

Artemisia Gentileschi 1593 – 1656

Lot and his Daughters

oil on canvas (230 × 183 cm) — c. 1637

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio

Artemisia Gentileschi biography

This work is linked to Genesis 19:32

Art and the Bible - Genesis 19 - Old Testament

 

Lot's daughters give their father so much wine that he becomes willing to sleep with them. After they lost their mother, who had turned into a pillar of salt, incest was the only way for them to get children.

 

The painting was attributed to Bernardo Cavallino until Gentileschi expert Mary Garrard in 1989 pointed out that it was much more likely that Gentileschi was the author. Cavallino and Gentileschi sometimes collaborated, which may explain the error.

 

Garrard named stylistic characteristics and also noted that the depiction of the daughters very much suited Artemisia's feminist approach of biblical women. Male painters would often show the daughters as seductresses. Gentileschi her shows Lot having most of the fun, whereas especially the daughter to the right seems very reluctant.