THE ICONOGRAPHY OF LOT AND HIS DAUGHTERS IN SIXTEENTH

CENTURY EUROPEAN ART

AN ORIENTATION

In this essay, I would like to discuss the iconography of Genesis 19, 30 - 38 and its cultural
background, observing its development from medieval examples; its radical restyle during the
sixteenth century; until its final assessment in European art at the end of the same century. I will
particularly consider the treatment of this narrative in Northern European cultures, trying to stress
the major issues involved in its visual and literary representations.
The reason to choose this particular moment in time and to focus on this geographical area is that it
was indeed within this coordinates that such an iconography began to be represented more often and
more differently. Like many others Old Testament themes, Lot and his daughters was rediscovered
and widely diffused by German and Dutch artists, concurrently with both new techniques' potential
and the advancement of a new social order. This inaugurated a brief period of great ferment, in
which the quest for originality led visual artists to look for new models, such as secular literature,
imitation of classic art and observation from life. Furthermore, the reason that bring me to elect this
particular subject, among all those that were revived in those years, is about its alleged implications
in some crucial problems of social nature. This passage of the Bible, dealing with a number of
misbehaviours around family life, sex and drunkenness, displays a moral anti-hero Lot - and a
double antagonist - his daughters - whose position in the plot is absolutely paradoxical. They do
committed a serious sexual transgression, but their actions were led by a moral duty to which they
earnestly obeyed. I hope to demonstrate that - apart from their role as Bible illustrations representations of this episode had been also used to illustrate the risks coming from two extremely
powerful forces, that are women and wine. Cycles of famous examples intended to warn men
against the bad influences of those two things on their mind existed from at least two centuries 1, but
it was in these years that they were expanded consistently, including the more and more cases from
different traditions. Lot and his daughters was particularly useful in these respects, because it
contained both the elements: girls taking command over their master through a sly use of wine, the
abuse of which makes you defenceless and weak instead of giving you the strength of a carefree
mind. With the very same allegorical intentions, but in an altogether different spirit, we will see at
least one iconographic example in which this episode had been used to convey a less profane and a
more religious meaning. Deep into the spiritual revolution that took place in Germany from the
1 See S. L. Smith, 'To women's wiles I fell': the Power of Women Topos and the Development of Medieval Secular Art,
(Harrisburg, 1978), pp. 76 125.

1620's, Lot and his daughters had been treated, by Martin Luther, as the epitomes of lives who had
been saved by God not in response to their own choices in an overwhelming situation, but for their
innermost intentions to do good despite the overwhelming situation in which they found themselves
lost. In other words, of people saved not for their good works rather than from individual faith.
However, in front of such an abundance of different solutions, it would be a serious mistake to read
all of them as a variation on these themes. Many of the Lot and his daughters' pictures were in fact
produced to be simple illustrations of the texts they were matched to, with no presumption to be any
other than that. It is the case of the great amount of examples from the illustrated Bibles of the
sixteenth century, in which the story of Lot appears as a part of the book of Genesis. But the Bible
was not the only text comprising this segment and we can find our narrative in other secular works
history books - where the subject is again illustrated in a peculiar way, also conveying interesting
meanings.

fig. 1 Orientation Diagram

I will not go too deep into the analysis of each context in which we could find Lot and his
daughters. My intention is rather to give an orientation to face the substantial growth of examples
of this iconography occurred in the sixteenth century (fig. 1) and to ascertain its openness to
different meanings. The social dimension of Genesis 19 and the sexual nature of the actions leading
the plot had a moral and educative potential that cannot be overlooked. Dealing with problems like
xenophobia and racial hatred, perverted sexuality, family and civic order, this passage touched the
tasks of both secular and ecclesiastical powers. In fact, we can find our subject both in Churches
and in City Halls, even if with considerably different reasons. While a conflicting structure of the

plot, textual difficulties, the use of special keywords and tropes in the text, the style itself and the
powerful imagery of this chapter gave to Reformers an amazing chance to use this story as a mirror
image for the predication to their faithful. Images of this kind were made by artists either to support
an allegorical intention in connection with other images into a wider programme; or to simply
illustrate a moral teaching in the form of an historical fact, as exempla in a chronological order.
1.

Medieval Iconography

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the iconographic tradition of this episode was rather
limited both in circulation and in variety of the visual solutions adopted. Compared to other scenes
of Genesis and, particularly, to the highly stereotyped depiction of the first part of the same chapter
- showing the Destruction of Sodom and the salvation of Lot's family the visual representation of
the incest itself was quite rare. We only know a little number of early medieval representations of
this episode; they are all comprised into illustrated Bible manuscripts, from the fifth to the seventh
century, with detailed cycles following the text step-by-step. The scene is usually set into the Cave
and gives particular focus on the moment in which the daughters offer wine to their father (fig. 2).

fig. 2 - Paris, BnF MS nouv. acq. Lat 2334, Ashburnham Pentateuch, 7th century

These books had probably no liturgical use2 and their production stopped in Western monasteries at
the end of the seventh century. Later Illustrated Bibles having indeed a more selected set of scenes,
we cannot find any further representation of our episode until the eleventh century.
Eventually, the 'verbatim principle' re-appeared in Illustrated Bibles when they began to be
2 O. Pacht, La Miniatura Medievale: un'introduzione (Torino 1987), p. 56.

translated from Latin into vernacular. The earliest example of this kind is the eleventh century
Hexateuch of lfric of the British Library3, that contains the first translation of the Bible into an
European language. Here, our narrative is divided in three scenes in which the whole action is
displayed in a sequential order (fig. 3).

fig. 3 London, BL MS Cotton Claudius B IV Aelfric Hexateuch, 11th century

In the twelfth century, we see an extremely schematic rendition of Lot and his daughters in the
Pamplona Bible of Amiens4. This book was conceived to be a real 'translation in images' of the
Bible, a text composed without any writing. Its drawings, like those of the Hexateuch, were
intended to be faithful illustrations of what the text actually said, with no other attributes to
complicate the reading. To this point, we only have scattered examples of mostly original
inventions, supported by a very poor set of symbolic attributes, and no evidence for any use of this
topos different from that as Bible illustration.
The situation changed from the thirteenth century, when our subject have a first radical
transformation. It appeared again in illustrated cycles of Genesis but, this time, the texts were not
always plain transcriptions of the canon: they were rather Bible translation in vernacular with
commentaries (Bible Historiale5), poetic re-writing in verses (Egerton Genesis6) and Book of
Hours7. These volumes came from a completely different environment and show a completely
different layout. Books are becoming a status symbol of aristocracy. Their content was now more
accessible, their format more easy-to-carry and both text and illustration were dedicated to a private,
3
4
5
6
7

London, British Library MS Cotton Claudius B IV, fol.

Amiens, Bibliothque Municipale MS 0108, fol.
New York Pierpont & Morgan Library, MS M. 394; Paris, Bibliothque Nationale de France MS fr. 15397.
London, British Library, MS Egerton 1894.
Besanon, Bibliotheque Municipale MS 0148; New York, Pierpont & Morgan Library MS 739 and MS 268.

sometimes individual commission. Book production was no more confined into monastic walls and
Bible material could have been assembled and integrated in the most personal way. Illustration
followed the same basic principles: images were mounted also according to their similarity and not
always in a chronological order. And they were now opened to a non-religious imagery. Next to
these devotional books, in fact, a separate branch of secular literature began to use our iconography,
that are the German Chronicles of the World or Weltchronik. These were historical accounts, in
rhyming couplets or in prose, telling the whole history of humanity according to the six ages of the
world and collecting a wide range of different sources 8. They were usually richly illustrated and
written in vernacular. The first examples of this genre come from the royal court of France around
the first years of the thirteenth century; they merely attempted to connect the English house of the
Plantagenets with the Arthurian kings9. But as soon as they spread throughout the continent, they
assumed the structure (and function) of earlier Chronicles in Latin, that aimed to give a whole
reason of the established order of the Earth through historical analysis. The main outline was,
following the Eusebian tradition, the one indicated by the Bible. But around that, many digressions
were added in order to give the wider and more detailed image of the world in each of its ages.
Episodes from pagan antiquity, northern mythology and biblical exegesis were put together with
common beliefs and family heraldry; the specific purpose was to link the whole scheme of
historical chain of events with the status quo in present times, usually culminating with the domain
of the lord that commissioned the work itself.
Images within both these devotional and historic works assumed a new symbolic dimension. The
scene is now set into a modern bedroom where the protagonists are preparing to get to bed (fig. 4).

fig. 4 New York, M&P Library MS 739 Morgan Book of Hours, 14th century
8 Rudolf von Ems used, along with the Bible, the Historia Scholastica by Peter Comestor and the Pantheon by
Godfroy of Viterbo. His work was later continued in the Christ-herre Chronik and integrated by Jan Enikel in his
own Weltchronik. See, Dunphy, Graeme (ed.), History as Literature. German World Chronicles of the Thirteenth
Century in Verse (Kalamazoo, 2003).
9 See The medieval chronicle III: proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle,
Doorn/Utrecht 12-17 July 2002, pp. 27 43.

It usually consists of two scenes: one where the daughters pour wine into their father's cup and the
other where we assist at the embraces, with different degrees of realism. Around them, the text
normally gave to the daughters the full responsibility for the sin of Lot. By looking to these cycles,
a first interesting thing to notice is that sexual acts were actually drawn only whether they were
considered 'impure' by Biblical standard10. Still, the illegitimate birth of all these progenies was
necessary from an universal standpoint. For instance, both king David and Jesus Christ genealogy
directly depended from a Moabite woman, Ruth. The shameful incest of Lot was then the premise
for many things to happen in history so that, in medieval times, this narrative has never been
considered outside its historical frame. At the same time, illustrations appear to be less literal and
they bring forth more symbolic elements, to make connections with present times more immediate.
Lot is often portrayed with an oriental dressing to support the kinship of Moab and Ammon and the
Arab people living in the same area11. While the forgiveness of any landscape indication placed the
scene into a generic setting, the bed, that is the topical place, in Genesis, for family meetings,
creating a strong visual connections with other similar episodes12.
It is not surprising to find the very same features also in the first monumental examples. The same
chronicle ratio is used in the two fourteenth century Church decoration programmes that bear our
subject on stained glass - Saint Pierre in Poitiers13 and the Erfurt Marienkirche and carved on the
central portal of Saint Jean-Baptiste of Lyons (fig. 5).

fig. 5 Lyon, Cathedrale de Saint Jean-Baptiste, Central Portal, Embrasure left (zone 4), 1240 45.
10 Deut. 22 and Lev. 20 21.
11 See Boswell, J. Christianity, Social Tollerance and Homosexuality, The University of Chicago Press, London 1980,
pp.
12 In Genesis cycles, recurs the type of the patriarch laying in bed, his head reclined, with sons or daughters around. In
Egerton Genesis, for example, bed is always connected with the conception and it used to underline incest in
particular. They are thus represented as such both Lot, Reuben and Judah, all responsible of sexual activities with
blood-related women.
13 See L. Godecki & M. Weedon, Atelier of the 13th century: A study in Windows in the Cathedrals of Bourges,
Chartres and Poitier in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 11 (1948), pp. 87-111.

In this case, the two quatrefoils that represented each sexual acts had been left unfinished. It is not
clear whether they had been passed through preventive censorship or they were rather a calculated
choice of the author. Either way, other images in some Weltchronik manuscripts had been obscured
alike. In the group of illustrated Weltchronik conserved at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek of
Mnich14, this episode is systematically deleted15 (fig. 6).

fig. 6 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek MS Cgm 250 Weltchronik von Rudolf von Ems, post 1310

Even if it is entirely possible that this latter intervention was the work of some prude librarian in a
later age, these instances could as well testify how difficult was to accept the creation of an imagery
around these figures. In fact such a censorship was not toward the sexual scene itself, rather than to
the evilness of the characters, as it is clear in a similar treatment in different situations16.
The iconography of Genesis 19, 30 38 in medieval times was scarce. Its presence was subordinate
to that of verbatim illustrations of Genesis. Its understanding was therefore completely historical
and never allegoric or typological17. During the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries, it was represented
in a very repetitive setting, inside rich cycles of both devotional and secular books. It eventually
appeared in Church decoration with the very same reasons, but in a very small number of cases.
2.

Early Renditions of 'Lot and his daughters': Secular Reading

At the end of the fifteenth century, our subject was carved on the ceiling of the Courtrai Town
Hall18. This time it appears among a very different set of scenes: Aristotle and Phyllis, Samson and
Delilah, Virgil in the Basket, Adam and Eve and Yael and Sisara. These were all tales of women
14 Mnich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek MSS Cgm 462; Cgm 11 and Cgm 250.
15 It seems that some kind of solvent had been applied because the pigment had passed to the subsequent folios.
16 Other characters in the same MS Cgm 250 were erased while doing other kind of actions. In Egerton MS 1894 very
explicit sex images were left untouched, while the Sodomites' sexual deeds were obscured.
17 The only exception I could find before the fifteenth century is in the Paris, Bibliothque Nationale MS fr. 9561 in
which the flight of Lot is compared to the withdrawal of the monk.
18 See Smith (as in n. ), p. 277 and 310 (n. 26).

prevailing on powerful men through seduction, coming from both classical literature and the Bible.
This is one of the earliest examples19 in which our iconography is portrayed outside its linear
context. The association within these scenes was a literary one. It went from a learned environment,
consciously echoing a much earlier topic of literature. This generated from a basic rhetorical
scheme for amplification through the repetition of famous exempla, used to support a simple
argument. Put in front of obstacles, women can easily overcome their masters' will and take
command of the situation. This topos has been investigated by Smith20, who carefully identified the
two forms in which this nucleus aggregated and was thus transmitted. They both consist in taking
some characters as the incarnations of as many virtues and to show that the power of women is able
to subvert their apparent perfection21. The first type, based on comparison, assumes the form of a
warning to the reader: 'Samson was the strongest man on Earth and he was deceived... then, how
much easier will be for you to be deceived?'. This form had a clear moral goal and it was mainly
used in homiletic works and sermons, mostly considering Old Testament examples. The second one
is rather a reminder of the limit of human nature. Through a series of rhetorical questions the
authors try to make clear that no-one can escape from world's attractions and that also the honours
coming from one's virtue are destined to be nullified by death. This latter form was a declination of
the vanitas topic, as the former type was modelled upon the series of vires illustres, combined with
the various schemes of virtues. In medieval times, the reduced version of this topic was composed
from at least the Wisdom of Salomon, the Strength of Samson and the Justice of David, but many
other examples might have been added. Lot, easy to guess, was between them22. This argument was
eventually transmitted to European languages, always standing in the same cultivated milieu of
intellectuals, although its domain expanded much beyond its purposes of moral teaching and passed
through poetry. In the thirteenth century a non-ecclesiastical literature took possess of these
formulas. Lost of sense for the sake of love was one of the more obvious actions that led the plot of
early romances, so that these patterns were perfectly suitable within the account of troubled men,
dominated by their lovers' chains.
In the earliest transmissions to iconography, the whole range of virtues was simplified at most and
reduced to a dual dialectic between two complementary features of human mind: Sapientia
embodied by Aristotle; and Fortitudo represented by Samson. The former is ridden by Phyllis who,
in the account of Henri d'Anderli23, promised a kiss to the philosopher in the case that he would
19 More or less of the same period is the ivory pyxis in the Cathedral Treasury of Mnster.
20 See Smith (as in n. 1), pp. 23 76.
21 A similar treatment of the same topic had been carried by classical authors with mythological examples (Propertius)
and then later revised by Christian rhetoricians, by simply substituting them with as many Old Testament scenes
(Jerome). Ibid. pp. 27 29.
22 See C. Pascal (ed.) Letteratura latina medievale (Catania 1909), 'De propiete feminarum'. T. Wright (ed.), The
Anglo-Saxon Satirical Poets... vol. II (London 1872), pp. 197 8. See also Smith (as in n. 1), p. 73 (n.105).
23 M. Infurna (ed.), Henri d'Anderli: il Lai di Aristotele, (Roma 2005).

have brought her on his back through the city centre. Samson is always portrayed while he's
wrestling against the Lion and only sometimes the betrayal of Delilah is represented jointly. These
images, brought together, show two possible attitudes for men through sexual desire: one
dominating, one being dominated. Moreover, most of the earliest examples explicitly put in
connection men with beasts. Also the most virtuous man can fall for the wiles of women and
become just like an animal: it is the case, again, of the faade of Saint Jean-Baptiste in Lyons, of the
Gothic casket of the Carrand Collection in Florence24 and of many choir stalls and embroideries
coming from Northern countries between fourteenth and fifteenth century. Until this moment, then,
we have a very rich and expanding set of examples from secular literature, and a very essential
translation in images of the same idea, including two core-examples that encompass all the others,
put in unsystematic cycles that show the transmutation of men in beasts.
But from the end of the fifteenth century onward, we assist to a change in conception. On one hand,
the selection of the scenes expanded and came to include many of the examples that had been left
apart before; in the same time, they are represented the more and more often as independent (i.e.
isolated) cycles. On the other hand, this new variety made the interpretation of the type more
immediate than before. It is clearer, now, that we are dealing with the same narrative, recurring in
all the scenes, even if with variations. It is very important to understand that such cycles were not
misogynist attacks against women made by a chauvinist society. In the corpus of examples that had
been used to illustrate our topic, women appear with a double function. As we have seen, their evil
tricks could lead virtuous men to fall. But, in the late expansion of the literary and iconographic
theme, many opposite cases were added, when women's wiles are actually a mean of salvation, an
assignment by God himself, even a proof of righteousness. It is the case of Judith, Lucretia, Tamar,
Esther who seduced and then defeated wicked men for their people's good. Their cruel actions were
indeed perceived as sacrifices. If we take a look to the Courtrai programme, for example, the story
of Yael and Sisara functions as a counter-part for the bad deeds of Eve and Delilah. Lot and his
daughters became to be represented also outside an ecclesiastical environment. These cycles,
featuring the Weiberlisten25 or 'Power of the Women', were mainly represented on luxury objects in
use of private customers in an urban dimension. Its iconography was thus in full expansion when it
came across the technical revolution brought by the invention of the printing.
2.1.

The 'Power of the Women' Cycles

Because it was now represented on typological cycles, the whole story of Genesis 19, 30 - 38
needed to be condensed in a single scene. A middle stage of this process could be seen in the
24 See Collection Carrand au Bargello, (Harvard 1888), p. 60.
25 Also called Minnesklaven or Mannertorheit. See Smith (as in n. ), pp. 3 4.

Nicolaskirche of Lichtenhein-Jena frescos (about 1420; fig. 7).

fig. 7 Leichtenhein-Jena, Nicolaskirche, Genesis frescos, ca. 1420.

Furthermore, the sporadic and scattered production of pictures of Lot and his daughters did not
facilitate the direct observation from sources. Visual artists of the sixteenth century had then the
opportunity to shape this narrative in the most original way. This image should have alluded to the
whole action described in the text and made the group of characters immediately recognizable.
Possibly, the first print to bear our subject comes from the PW Master of Kln (tav. I) and it dates
around 1515. As we have seen from picture books, it was not the first time that the scene had been
treated engaging with specific pictorial problems. But that was the first time that the author had
enough space to place all the element at once and, moreover, that it had been reproduced in such a
manner that it could be viewed independently from the other images of the cycle. Again, it was the
first time that it was spread in different places in the same time through a high number of copies. It
is in fact in the same years that the oil painting, now at the National Gallery, of Lot and his
daughters had been executed in Leiden by an anonymous local painter26. The two images, though
they are very different in style, show the same frontal composition and it is precisely because it
seems to be more probable for the print to have travelled toward Leiden rather then for the engraver
himself, that I think that the painting should be considered a later work. Other images related to the
Power of Women topos were produced in the same workshop. We do not have any hard evidence of
the unity of this cycle, nor that the Lot and his daughters' print was part of that. Still, the number of
representations and the lack of other scenes of Genesis that should have accompanied our episode in

26 Inv. n. NG3459

tav. I London, British Museum, PW Master, Lot and his daughters, ca. 1515

the case of a chronological cycle, bring me to think so. Few other images were produced during the
early 1520's, such as the 1523 oil painting by Jan De Cock, that show the influence of both
Weltchronik manuscripts27 and of Italian engravers28. But the situation changed drastically with the
end of the decade. In 1528, Lucas Cranach the Elder painted its first panel on the subject: other nine
variations will follow (fig. 8).

fig. 8 - Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lot and his daughters (1528)
Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum

It has been recognised that Cranach was the first to paint a complete Power of Women cycle
(including Samson and Delilah and Solomon Idolatry). But the panels for the Dbeln Town Hall
were not the first challenge of the artist on the same topic. There are previous painting covering
almost the entire range of the main themes. The relevance of Cranach's type for the development of
the iconography of Lot and his daughters is absolute. He sold these works to both a secular and an
ecclesiastical public29 and to both Catholic and Reformed Churches, as we will see shortly.
However, we need to wait until 1530 to have the first inclusion of our subject in a Power of Women
cycle of engravings. It is a woodcut made by Lucas van Leiden, in a cycle including only biblical
scenes, some of which are very rare. The sexual tone of the scene is intensified by the tension of the
27 That we could guess from the presence of a caravan of asses and camels, often in such manuscripts. This details will
also be reprised by John Calvin reading.
28 Marcantonio Raimondi ???
29 As the exemplar from the Monastery of Nova ise, now at the Moravska Galerie of Brno.

feet, the pouring gesture of one daughter failing to find her sister's goblet and from symbolic
attributes. In the lapse of ten years the representations of our subject multiplied in all Germany. It
appeared again in Power of Women cycles (George Pencz, 1531), illustrated Bibles (Georg
Lemberger for the first Lutheran translation of 1524) and, again, Chronicles (Sebald Beham, 1533).
Meanwhile, its reproduction on luxury objects did not ceased and we can find our subject depicted,
along with the others, on plates coming from the Limoges' workshop of Raymond, and on other
vessels from the Netherlands. An early engraving of Aldegrever had been probably used as a model
for the new scabbard of Joachim II sword with other Genesis' scenes. Animals frame the usual
scenes of Power of Women on the table of the Rheinische Landesmuseum of Trier (tav. II).
Yet the Power of Women topic was not the only ambit that used our iconography as a trope. Another
element of the plot of Genesis 19, 30 - 38 was taken in consideration, one that was strictly bound to
women's wiles: wine.
2.2.

The Strength of Wine

A special emphasis on the role of the wine in the story of Lot had been recognised since from the
first commentaries. Generally, ebrietas was the main charge on Lot's head and the only sin that the
commentators could find in his behaviour. Many speculations were put forward by scholars about
the presence of wine in the desert. Sometimes wine is even seen as a merciful remedy to deliver the
father by the pain of committing an incest. Indeed, Lot's daughters had, for a long time, been
reputed as heroines of their peoples and morally stainless. Iconographic and exegetical parallels
were laid between Lot and his daughters and the Drunkenness of Noah because in both cases wine
served to patriarchs' adult children to make their fathers unconscious and abuse of them. But wine
played a consistent role in other tales of virtuous women overcoming wicked men. The same used
Judith against Holofernes and, although Yael's potion is reported to be milk, some midrash assumed
that it had been mixed with wine30. A drawing of the British Museum, attributed to Holbein, (fig.
13) shows indeed these three biblical scenes of sex, drunkenness and revenge, together.
But the main source for the Power of Wine in the sixteenth century was indisputably the First Book
of Esdra31. This text was originally included in the Septuaginta canon preceding Esdra B (now the
books of Ezra and Nehemiah) and labeled as Esdra A. It was eventually eliminated from the
Catholic canon in 1566, although later editions still reports that as an appendix to Esdra A. Also
early Lutheran Bibles from Germany generally omitted this text. But Bibles coming from the
30 See M. Bal, Murder and Difference: Gender, Genre and Scholarship on Sisera's Death (1988). Also B. Miller, Tell
it on the Mountain (Collegeville 2005) p.33.
31 See I. M. Veldman, Who is the strongest? The riddle of Esdra in Netherlandish Art in Simiolus: Netherlands
Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 17, No. 4 (1987), pp. 223 239.

tav. II Trier, Rheinische Landesmuseum, Table with Weiberlisten, 1546

Netherlands typically kept a softer attitude toward apocrypha so that in both Catholic, Lutheran and
Calvinist editions32, it appears along with the canonical books. Apart from those on illustrated
Bibles, this book had a separate set of illustrations, focusing on a specific passage of the text, where
it is described a riddle that took place at the court of the king Darius within three of his attendants.
A question arose and they choose the king himself to judge which one of their answers was the
wisest: 'What is the strongest thing on Earth?'. The first one says 'Wine is the strongest', the second
one suggests 'The king' while the third, called Zorobabel, explains: 'Women are strongest, but above
all things truth beareth away the victory.' 33 Zorobabel wins the competition and as a reward he
obtains the return of the Jews in Jerusalem and the reconstruction of the Temple. This story was
illustrated by some Dutch artists in a very varied way, under the collective title of 'The four
powers'34. In the cycle conceived by Ambrosius Francken 35, the iconography of Lot and his
daughters appear in the table dedicated to the power of wine (fig. 9).

fig. 9 Francken and Wierix, The four powers: the Power of Wine, 1576 1598.

It is accompanied on the opposite side to an ambiguous scene, probably Judith and Holofernes. In
32
33
34
35

See Veldman (as in n. 45), pp. 223 224.

1 Esdra 3, 1 12.
See Veldman (as in n. 45). 'Quatuor quae in terra fortissima sunt'
Executed by Jan Wierix in Antwerp between 1573 and 1598.

the centre, a personification of wine stands over a heap of objects testifying his supremacy over
Work (the spade), Temperance (the compass), Thrift (the bag of money) and Friendship (the sword
cutting the shaken hands). The clumsy gesture of Wine-Bacchus pouring wine out of the cup,
reminds us of the similar pose of one of Lot's daughters in Lucas van Leiden's print. The Latin
caption below explain the sense of the picture almost literally36.
Being probably the most obvious place to find them, Lot and his daughters had been represented
also on several cups. Two of them are particularly rich, both in material and in execution. The
Griffin Claw Cup from the Fausts' workshop in Mainz and now at the British Museum, presents our
subject curiously paired with the Sacrifice of Marcus Curtius. The two images could be maybe red
as representations of the opposed effects of drinking: assumed with moderation, wine was believed
to bring fire to the body and therefore give courage 37, while if taken exceedingly it would bring to
deviance and depravity. Another precious goblet from Nuremberg, also in the British Museum,
confronts our subject and the Destuction of Sodom with the Adoration of the Golden Calf and the
Destruction of Pharaoh's Host. Here the meaning is more evident than in the other. We do have two
divine interventions to destroy the evil, followed by as many feasts of the saved ones, in which they
prove themselves to be even worst sinners. In both cases the excesses of the protagonists are left
without any direct punishment by God, their punishment being the consequence of their behaviour
itself, that is social decay and family wreck. This theme, dealing with the salvation of elected men
and women - who will keep to sin in spite of what they have just passed through - will be central in
the religious debate that took place in Germany and the Low Countries, and it will be continuously
projected on the historic events taking place there in those troubled years.
3. 'Lot and his daughters' and the Reformers: Ecclesiastical Reading
In 1539, the Wolfgangkirche of the town of Schneeberg was equipped with a new altarpiece. The
reason for that was the recognition of a new communal faith by the population and by the authority,
the Ernestines family sponsoring the purchase. The work was commissioned to Lucas Cranach's
workshop after the Duke John Frederick a fervent Lutheran - had removed all the Catholic images
from the Church in 1532. A long-term collaboration existed between Lucas and Martin Luther since
a long time. They were real friends, both involved in each one's personal life. Although Lucas
personal beliefs were not necessarily coincident with Martin's and he never quit accepting
commissions from the Catholics, he was the main responsible for the diffusion of an inherent
Evangelical imagery. Such images were incredibly fresh and vivid. All the conventions about space
36 See Veldman (as in n. 48), pp. 228 229.
37 See B. A. Tlutsy, Baccus and Civic Order: the Culture of Drinking in Early Modern Germany (Charlottesville
2001), pp. 48 79.

construction and traditional iconographies were subverted or deeply renewed. The logic behind
these creations was to impress without creating confusion. The interaction between the images and
the spoken word had the incredibly hard task to change people's way of praying and to think God.
The most systematic image particularly conceived for that was the so-told Law and Gospel38, one
version of which was portrayed on the week-day, closed position of the altarpiece. Its dual structure
seems to be reflected in the two other views: the rear panels explaining the meaning of Law; and the
holiday open position displaying the apotheosis of Grace, i.e. the Crucifixion. What is more
interesting for us, however, is the rear view (fig. 10), for our subject appears for the first time with
such an evidence in the economy of any Church decoration.

Fig. 10 Lucas Cranach the Elder, Schneeberg Altarpiece (1539), Schneeberg, Wolfgangkirche. Rear view

Lot and his daughters is located on the right side, next to a very strange rendition of the Last
Judgement and opposed to an equally shocking image of the Flood. The connection of Lot and
Noah is an ancient one. Their lives followed a common pattern and both of them had been
recognised by Scriptures as 'righteous'. This was an important label in exegesis because it
designated men whose life had been always within God's favour. Luther then stressed this point,
taking the authority of Scriptures as a proof for his theory. In his reading of Genesis 1939 he states
that Lot was saved even if he offered his daughters to the Sodomites, because he thought that he
38 See B. Noble, Lucas Cranach the Elder: Art and Devotion of the German Reformation (Lanham 2009), pp. 73 75.
39 M. Luther, Exegetica Opera Latina, IV (Munchen 1893), pp. 245 340.

could avoid a more serious crime. Also the daughters were saved, even if God knew their intentions.
In fact, our salvation or punishment does not depend from what we do, but from who we are. Or, to
put that differently, on how we do behave under horrible, but necessary, circumstances. But why
then considering Lot as a saint? For Luther, laws and rules are built after exceptions and singular
cases. But being such an exception in God's plan is nobody else's choice. Lot is then an 'heroic
man'40, because he grew up in the Rule, he really wanted to act well, but he had to surrender to the
act of God. Grace, and then salvation, is donated in proportion not with our actions, in a certain
condition that is independent from us, but with our faith. For Lutherans one will never stop to sin.
But sin is not necessarily a symptom of a lack of faith. Such as good works are not a sign of true
faith. Biblical characters are not exempla, examples, to imitate but rather miracula, or exemplar
cases of divine speech. Saints do not deserve honours because they were sinners. But while the
Sodomites' 'commessationes et potationes'41 were evil, theirs were pious: very same actions,
completely different meaning in history. A liturgical reason added to this exegetic explanation. The
rear panels of this altarpiece were seen by faithful at the moment of the Coena Domini42. Unlike the
Catholics, the Lutheran believer receives the bread on his left, pass Lot, the Judgement and Noah
and then receives the wine on the right side. Such a dim programme between bread and wine
marked another major difference from Catholic liturgy. There one can partake the Communion only
if he had remitted his sins through Confession. From an Evangelical point of view, Communion
then became the presumption of being delivered from sins. Lutherans didn't believe in remission
through other men: taking the Body - and Blood - of Christ, was then an obligation to receive and
believe, and not a justification.
From a similar starting point but with opposite conclusions was the reading of John Calvin. He too
thought that our actions in life are separated by our destiny in the afterlife. But instead of
considering Lot as a chosen one, he brings him down to his miserable condition. He and his
daughters deserved neither more nor less of what they actually suffered. Their responsibility was
only their own and God, in his reading, is completely transcendental. Our duty is then to evaluate
the individual's conduct of biblical characters and to learn from their mistakes. It is not as easy, as it
had been for Luther, to connect Calvin's reading to a specific work of art. His position through
images was way more radical than Lutherans: the only images that his theory could admit, were
historical and landscapes painting, outside devotional places anyway 43. And, as such, they not only
survived but they eventually multiplied. It is impossible not to see the imprint of Calvinism in many
of the Dutch representations between the end of the century and the beginning of the seventeenth
40
41
42
43

Ibid. p. 305. 'Homo heroicos'

Ibid. p. 324.
See Noble (as in n. 52), pp. 75 77.
See C. R. Joby, Calvinism and the Arts: a re-assessement (Leuven 2007), pp. 1 28.

(fig. 11).

fig. 11 Joachim Wttwael, Lot and his daughters (ca. 1600), The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

They were now portrayed as fully negative examples, as it is clear from the treatment they receive
in some 'moral' cycles, where they figures as counterexamples. The characters has definitely lost
any sacral aura and they are now lecherous figures, whose function as warnings or invites is left to
the judgement of the beholder.
4. Conclusion
We have not seen the entire face of this strange myth. I have not talked about its connection with the
first part of the chapter, featuring the sin of the Sodomites and God's punishment, that constitutes an
almost necessary premise to understand the meaning of our segment in a more coherent frame.
Many of the examples that I brought by, lacks of a proper direct analysis on the objects and in some
cases I had to be very brief in their description, due to the little space available. Nevertheless, I hope
to have provided an useful example to ascertain the differentiation of the images in response to the
changing in the cultural landscape of Europe. This would help also to calibrate the hiatus between
medieval quest for iconographic seriality44 and the research for novelty and variation of the modern
sensibility. Lot and his daughter went through a complete metamorphosis: from being saints, to be
saints without merits, concluding being total sinners in a cruel and senseless world. The reaction
44 See J. Baschet, Inventivit et Serialit des Images Medievales, in Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 51e Ann, n.
1 (Jan. - Feb. 1996), pp. 93 133.

from the Catholic world was to recreate their lost purity with images presenting them, in most of the
cases, as penitent sinners. Confronting Frans Floris' with Orazio Gentileschi's Lots should give the
measure of the depth of the breaking within these two European worlds (fig. 17). However, this
story touched very profound and intimate aspects of the life of individuals and its treatment must
have been carried with the greatest attention. The solutions that some great artists had found and
their success until our days, testifies the great potential of these images for both profane and
religious contemplation. My hope is then to have created a connection between some of them and
their environment.

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