Giovanni Battista Pittoni
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Loth and his daughters
Canvas 213 x 278 cm.
Provenance
Probably Francesco Tamagno collection; Zagreb, The University Professors's Association.
Literature
Grgo Gamulin, "Prijedlozi za mletacki settecento", in Radovi Ipu, novembre 1987, p. 159, repr. p.160;
Franca Zava Boccazzi, Pittoni, Alfieri, Venise, 1979, A.19 p. 205, repr. fig.500.
More information
Loth lived together with his wife and two daughters in Sodom. Two angels came to the city, Lot showed them hospitality and opened his home to them. However, the men in Sodom gathered around Lots house in a mob and demanded him to give them the two angels so they could rape them. Instead, Lot offered them his two virgin daughters but the offer was refused by the mob. The angels then solved the problem by making the men blind, and then warned Lot to leave the city of Sodom before it was going to be destroyed.
Lot and his family then fled. His wife tried to go back to the city but turns into a pillar of salt as a punishment for not obeying the angels. Lot and his two daughters escaped to Zoar where they live in a cave in the mountains.
The daughters are realizing that since they are living isolated in the cave, they will never meet any men. They will therefore not have the opportunity to have any children that can continue the family line. As a result, they are deciding to seduce their father. They get him drunk and are during two consecutive nights having sex with him, without his knowledge. Both of the daughters are getting pregnant and gives birth to the sons Moab and Ammon and the family line is continued.