Masterpieces
Lot and His Daughters
Gentileschi, Orazio
Pisa, Italy, 09/07/1563-London, 07/02/1639
Oil on canvas
226 x 282 cm
HORA.vs GIENTIL.vs (centre right)
c. 1628
Second quarter of the 17th century
69/101
Acquired in 1924
Wishing to enlist one of the most prominent artists of his day, King Charles I of England, a fervent lover and connoisseur of painting, invited Orazio Gentileschi to London in 1626. Thus, the Tuscan painter moved to England at the age of 63 along with his four sons; his famous daughter Artemisia also accompanied him for a brief period of time.
We know from document sources that this painting -perhaps the first large-scale one made for the monarch- was received in 1628, two years after Gentileschi arrived in London, and that it was placed in the Palace of Whitehall. That same year, the German painter and writer Joachim von Sandrart saw the work and described it as follows: "No less important was one of Lot sleeping on the lap of one of his daughters as the other turned around to see what her father was doing, a wonderful work impossible to improve upon." And that is also what Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I, must have thought when a few years later, in the 1630s, she wanted to take the painter's most beautiful works, including this one, to Queen's House, her palace in Greenwich on the banks of the Thames. Gentileschi received one of the most important commissions from that era for this palace, which was near the capital: to paint the ceiling of the Great Hall with an Allegory of Peace Reigning over the Arts. Unfortunately, the entire set was dismantled and the works scattered and sold when Charles I was decapitated in 1649. The paintings on the ceiling underwent severe deterioration when they were adapted to their current location, Marlborough House in London.
In Lot and his Daughters, the painter depicts the scene when the biblical patriarch, warned by an angel of the imminent destruction of Sodom, flees with his family. Along the way, his wife is turned into a pillar of salt because she disobeyed the divine orders by turning back to look at the city in flames. Once Lot and his daughters take refuge in a cave, the latter are afraid of ending up alone in the world and plot an incestuous relationship with their father, as recounted in Genesis: "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father."
Gentileschi, who was born in Pisa, worked decorating large frescoes for the Vatican. After 1600, his style underwent a profound transformation when he met Caravaggio in Rome. He gradually moved away from his initial tenebrism, and his painting became more delicate and colourful. In addition to working as a painter in Rome, he did so in Genoa, Turin, Paris and finally London as well, where he lived until his death.
Gentileschi has the ability to capture this salacious erotic theme in an evocative way with the elegance that characterises this last stage in his career. Here, the painter, who had previously rendered the theme in Genoa in a different and much more sober way, shows an elaborate, sensual composition in which the three figures are close to life-sized. Each is portrayed in one of the primary colours, and they form a notable diagonal line, their jewel tones standing out brightly over the darkness of the cave, which has two openings through which we can glimpse the sky and an apparently bucolic landscape. The drunken Lot is sleeping on the lap of one of his daughters, who is dressed in light yellow, while the other one is standing, wearing a gown painted with a brilliant, pure ultramarine blue pigment. She and her sister are looking at each other, and the standing daughter is pointing to the city of Sodom in flames in the background of the landscape, where one can see a minuscule figure, the pillar of salt into which their mother had been turned. The painter's mastery is reflected in all the elements of the composition, and it is particularly evident in the different qualities of the fabrics, such as Lot's garnet silk tunic with its blue iridescences, with which Gentileschi achieved an extraordinary beauty. His skill is also manifested in his depiction of the metallic objects which allude to Lot's drunkenness: the golden bowl and the tin pitcher lying on the ground with the remains of wine left in it, and especially the exquisite bunch of grapes hanging from the vine at one of the openings to the cave.
The first part of the painter's career in Rome as one of Caravaggio's most prominent followers was but a distant memory by the time Gentileschi made this painting. In his final stage in London, he displays a painstaking facture with extraordinary chromatic richness and a certain theatricality, all of which adapted perfectly to the refined tastes of the English monarch and are clearly displayed in this magnificent painting. (Ana Sánchez-Lassa)
Selected bibliography
- Sandrart, Joachim von. Teutsche Academie der Bau-Bild-und Mahlerey-Künste. Munich, 1675. [edición a cargo de A. R. Peltzer, Munich, 1925] (citado por Gabriele Finaldi, 2005)
- Plasencia, Antonio. Catálogo de las obras de pintura y escultura del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Imprenta Provincial, 1932. p. 19, n° cat. 39. (Con el título Lot y sus hijas, y atribuido a Orazio Gentileschi)
- Ward Bisell, Raymond. "Orazio Gentileschi and the Theme of ”Lot and His Daughters”", Bulletin The National Gallery of Canadá, n° 14. 1969. p. 26.
- Lasterra, Crisanto de. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : catálogo descriptivo : sección de arte antiguo. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1969. pp. 46-47, n° cat. 101. (Con el título 'Lot y sus hijas', y atribuido a Orazio Lomi Gentileschi)
- Ward Bissel, Raymond. "Orazio Gentileschi and the Theme of ”Lot and His Daughters” ", Bulletin : the Nationlal Gallery of Canada, n° 14. 1969. pp. 16-28.
- Caravaggio y el Naturalismo Español [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Dirección General de Bellas Artes, 1973. n° cat. 23.
- Villanueva Edo, A. "Medicina e Historia en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao", Gaceta médica de Bilbao, n° 7-8. 1978. pp. 645, 651-657, il.
- Ward Bissell, Raymond. Orazio Gentileschi and the poetic tradition in caravaggesque painting. Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1981. n° cat. 61.
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- Sánchez-Lassa de los Santos, Ana ; Galilea Antón, Ana María. "La Restauración de ”Lot y sus hijas” de Orazio Gentileschi", Guía de Exposiciones, n° 160. s.p.
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- "Una pintura de Gentileschi para el rey inglés será restaurada en el Museo de Bilbao", Deia. 28/02/1991.
- "Importante cuadro del pintor italiano Gentileschi será restaurado en Bilbao", El Correo. 28/02/1991.
- "Acuerdo para la restauración de un cuadro del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao", Diario Vasco. 05/03/1991.
- "El cuadro ”Lot y sus hijas” de Gentileschi está siendo restaurado", Egin. 05/03/1991.
- "Restauración de un cuadro", El Correo. 06/03/1991.
- "Venganza en la sombra", El País. 25/08/1991.
- "Finaliza la restauración de un cuadro del pintor italiano Orazio Gentilleschi en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao", El Mundo. 20/11/1991.
- "Miscelanea", Bilbao. 03/1992.
- "La Contradicción de la carne", El Mundo. 13/10/2005.
- "Caravaggio y la pintura realista europea", El Punto. 21-27/10/2005.
- "Artemisia Gentileschi en el Museo de Bilbao", El Correo. 02/07/2008.
- "12 días 12 obras maestras : Lot y sus hijas", El Nervión. 11/07/2008.