Lot and his Daughters

A seasoned but lusty old man is seated between two naked young women. In the background a city is burning. The man is Lot, seduced by his daughters following the destruction of the city of Sodom. Hendrik Goltzius painted the work in 1616. He used the Bible storyBibleThe word 'bible' comes from the Greek word 'biblos', which means book. In fact the Bible is not one, but a collection of many books. It divides into two parts, the Old and the New Testament, both comprising various groups of writings - the books of the Bible. The Old Testament contains the laws and history of the Jewish people from the Creation to pre-Roman times. The New Testament deals with Jesus Christ, the central figure of Christianity. The accent is on his ministry, the Crucifixion and his Resurrection from death. Here too are the stories of Christ's first followers, the apostles. Christian teaching is founded on the Bible. to show off his skill as a painter of nudes. The two women have wonderfully soft bodies with full, gentle curves. For an old man, Lot is still remarkably muscular. To accentuate the bodies the artist draped cloth over them in contrasting colours: blue, yellow and red. The poses of Lot and his daughters are perhaps rather artificial, but that was the style of art in the period, Mannerism.