Lot and His Daughters

Artist Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino (Italian, 1591 - 1666)

Place of OriginItaly

Date1651-1652

DimensionsPainting: 69 1/4 × 91 in. (175.9 × 231.1 cm)
Frame: 80 1/2 × 104 1/4 × 3 3/4 in. (204.5 × 264.8 × 9.5 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2009.345

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 36

Label TextA raging inferno consumes a city in the background, while the foreground is occupied by two young women with wine jugs—one provocatively only partially robed—and an older man seated on the ground and raising a drinking vessel to his lips. Conspicuously placed in the very center of the composition, just below the flames, is a small, white pillar with the form of a static human figure. Depicted in this drama is the Old Testament story found in Genesis 19, the account of Lot and his daughters. Angered by the immorality of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, God sent angels to announce to the just and pious Lot, nephew of Abraham, that He would destroy the two cities. The angels, however, advised Lot to escape with his wife and daughters to the mountains but warned, “look not behind thee ... lest thou be consumed.” Lot’s wife did not heed the warning and was turned into a pillar of salt. Having sought refuge with their father in a cave and believing that they were the sole survivors on earth, the elder of Lot’s daughters said to the other, “Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the seed of our father.” The resulting progeny were Moab and Ben-ammi, whose descendants would be conquered by descendants of Abraham. Lot and His Daughters admirably fills a long-identified gap in the Museum’s collection of 17th-century Baroque paintings: a work by the important Bolognese master Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino (‘the squinter’). With a supreme talent for staging a narrative and conveying both the actions of its protagonists as well as suggesting their emotional struggles, Guercino’s subtle hand gestures and engaging facial expressions here effectively communicate the conspiratorial intent of the daughters.Published ReferencesWaggen, G. F., Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London, 1857, pp. 426-7, as by Guercino.

Salerno, L., I dipinti del Guercino, Rome, 1988, p. 364, no. 296, as copy after Guercino.

Loire, Stephane, Le Guerchin en France, 38 les dossiers du Département des peintures, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1990, p. 73, under no. 15, and p. 74, fig. 44, as copy after Guercino.

Stone, D. M., Guercino: catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence, Cantini, 1991, p. 279, under no. 271, as good copy after Guercino.

Ghelfi, B., ed., Il. libro dei conti del Guercino, 1629-1666, Bologna, Nuova Alfa, 1997, p. 174, note for no. 511, as copy after Guercino.

Turner, Nicholas, "Mola's Caricature Portrait of the Genoese Collector and Dealer Gerolamo Panesi," Master Drawings, vol. 47, no. 4, Winter 2009, pp. 518-19, fig. (col.) 519, as Guercino.

Exhibition HistoryManchester, Art-Treasures Exhibition, 1857, no. 365, as by Guercino.

York Art Gallery, 1970 (as by Guercino).

Comparative ReferencesSee also Sgarbi, Vittorio, Le stanze del cardinale: Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Guercino, Mattia Preti. Cinisello Balsamo, Milan, Silvana, 2009, p.128, no. 27.