GOLTZIUS, Hendrick
(b. 1558, Mühlbrecht, d. 1617, Haarlem)

Lot and his Daughters

1616
Oil on canvas, 140 x 204 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

After fleeing the sinful city of Sodom, which God had ordered to be destroyed, Lot and his daughters found themselves alone. Fearing that they would remain childless, the girls seduced their father into sleeping with them. This is shown on the left of the picture, while on the right in the background we can see Sodom burning. Goltzius made a moralistic twist to this erotic bible story by including a fox as a symbol of cleverness and a dog as a guardian of morality.