Bible in art · Genesis

Lot and His Daughters [reverse]

Albrecht Dürer · c. 1496/1499
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Albrecht Dürer painted this scene in Nuremberg in the late 1490s on the back of a panel whose front shows the Madonna and Child. The panel is small, about 42 centimetres wide, and was probably made for one of the city’s leading families, the Hallers.

Lot strides down a path with a flask at his back and a pot slung on his staff; his daughters follow with a bundle, a box and a distaff, as if leaving on a journey. Behind them the cities explode in fire, and far up the path a tiny dark figure stands still.

From the text

The angels led Lot, his wife and his two daughters out of the city (Genesis 19:16)
The LORD “rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah” (Genesis 19:24)
“Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26)
Smoke rising from the land “like smoke from a furnace” (Genesis 19:28)

The artist’s own

Clothes of Dürer’s own Germany: Lot’s turban, fur-lined coat and boots, the daughters’ dresses and braided hair
Everyday things for the road — a flask, a pot, a little box, a distaff with wool
A German landscape of rocks, fir trees and a lake with boats
No angels: the family walks alone

Details

Pillar of salt

A small dark figure stands still on the path behind them — Lot’s wife.

The cities burn

A walled city bursts into flame under a black column of smoke.

A second fire

Far away at the right, another town is burning.

A heavy bundle

One daughter balances a large blue bundle on her head.

Distaff

The other carries a distaff with wool and a spindle, and a small box.

Lot

In a turban and fur-lined coat, with a flask at his back and a pot on his staff.

Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471–1528. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.16.b) · Oil on panel · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)

The verses

Gen 19:15–28At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But when Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters. And they led them safely out of the city, because of the LORD’s compassion for them. As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!” But Lot replied, “No, my lords, please! Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I cannot run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die. Look, there is a town nearby where I can flee, and it is a small place. Please let me flee there—is it not a small place? Then my life will be saved.” “Very well,” he answered, “I will grant this request as well, and will not demolish the town you indicate. Hurry! Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.” That is why the town was called Zoar. And by the time the sun had risen over the land, Lot had reached Zoar. Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Early the next morning, Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.

See it at the museum’s site