Venetian school, mid-18th century, Loth and his daughters

Venetian school, mid-18th century

Loth and his daughters

Oil on canvas, 43 x 57 cm

With frame, 70 x 84 cm

The canvas in question clearly depicts Loth and his daughters, protagonists of the story narrated in Genesis (19,30 – 38) and closely intertwined with the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, Abraham's nephew, lived in Sodom with his family, until God, seeing the corruption and sin spreading, decided to destroy them. Two angels were sent to warn Loth and help him escape, but during the escape her wife disobeyed by turning back to look at the burning city, being immediately transformed into a pillar of salt. Loth and his two daughters then found refuge in a cave: here, fearing not having other men with whom to procreate and perpetuate their lineage, the daughters got their father drunk and lay with him carnally while he slept unaware of what was happening, getting pregnant.

The protagonists are depicted here in half-length portrait, placed in the foreground against the neutral black background, recalling in some ways the approach inaugurated by Giorgione in the famous painting The Three Ages of Man, preserved in the Palatine Gallery in Florence. From a formal and chromatic point of view, in fact, the canvas in question can be referred to a Venetian artist active around the mid-18th century, who therefore had the opportunity to compare himself with the great models of previous centuries. The skilful use of light and color are, in fact, distinctive elements of Venetian painting of this period: masterfully exploiting light to create effects of atmosphere, depth and softness, the artist gives life to a work of great charm and realism. The colors used, bright and vibrant, combined with rapid and pasty brushstrokes in a bold and contradictory way, create a dynamic narrative effect.

Here the artist limits the sexual aspect of the story, giving his figures more dignity and a deeper psychological interaction: the canvas alludes with great balance and measure to the events without showing them in their entirety, capturing the exact moment in which one begins to perceive the intoxication of Loth, who with his not very alert gaze, his cheeks red from the high alcohol level and the balance of his body uncertain, abandons himself among the bodies of his daughters, the latter caught in the moment of maximum concentration and sensuality for the implementation of their plan.