Felice Ficherelli
, Italian, 1605- c.1669
Title
Lot and his DaughtersDatec.1650
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
159 x 176 cm
Credit LineMilltown Gift, 1902
Object numberNGI.1746
DescriptionAfter the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:30-38), Lot and his two daughters fled to the mountains. Here, a distant white figure represents Lot’s wife, who was turned to a pillar of salt after disobeying instructions not to look back at the cities still burning beyond. In order that the human race could continue, Lot’s daughters made their father drunk and committed incest, of which he was unaware. Each daughter bore a son (Moab and Ammon) by their father. Ficherelli studied as a boy in the Florentine studio of Jacopo da Empoli, while responding later to the more lurid phase of Florentine art led by Furini, with ambiguous, often morbid or unpleasant subjects. He takes great pleasure here in his depiction of one daughter embracing her father and plying him with wine, while the other pours more wine into an ornate silver cup. Their lips are red hot and their figures loosely draped, if less revealing than is generally the case in Ficherelli’s pictures. The inclusion of elaborate metalware is a recurrent feature.
The canvases by Ficherelli, Dandini, Furini and Lorenzo Lippi that the future Earl of Milltown acquired were not the usual works sought at the time by grand tourists, and were probably offered as a group when he was in Florence.
March 2016
Label TextLot’s family fled their home when angels warned them that God intended to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sheltering in a cave, and fearing that they were the sole survivors of the human race, Lot’s daughters plied their father with wine and committed incest, hoping to become pregnant. This morally ambiguous Old Testament story provided artists with the opportunity to paint erotic scenes. In this example, by Tuscan artist Ficherelli, Lot’s body language implies that he is reluctant, but ultimately helpless against the wiles of his two determined daughters.