Lot and His Daughters

This is an oil on canvas painting. In the foreground Lot and his two daughters, one facing the viewer on her father's lap pouring wine and the other partially turned away from the viewer. Two putto play behind the latter daughter: one is masked symbolizing deception, and the other is unmasked, symbolizing truth. The central background of the painting Lot and his daughters are shown fleeing Sodom, which is being consumed, along with Gomorrah, in a hail of fire and brimstone. Lot's wife turned back to look at Sodom and turned into a pillar of salt.

Bonifazio de' Pitati
Italian (1487-1553)
Lot and His Daughters, ca. 1545
Oil on canvas
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
European Art
Location: Exhibit, Gallery 218
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Dimensions: H: 47 in, W: 64 1/2 in, FH: 63 1/2 in, FW: 82 in
Object ID: 71.622

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Description
Exhibitions
Publications
Provenance

Publications

Ernst Gunter Troche, "Giovanni Cariani," Jahrbuch der Preuszischen Kunstsammlungen 55, Part II (1934): 117, 123, no. 83; p. 118 fig. 4 (as Cariani).
William E. Suida, "Spigolature Giorgionesche," Arte Veneta 8, Part II (1954): 159-160, fig. 170 (as Bonifazio Veronese).
Bertina S. Manning, Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.: An Exhibition Organized by the Portland Art Museum, Oregon, exh. cat., Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oreg., 1956, No. 24.
Charlotte Williard, "Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Exhibits his Personal History of Art," Look (March 6, 1956): 47, illustrated.
Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance Vol. I (London: Phaidon Press Ltd., 1957), 42; Vol. II, plate 1140 (as Bonifazio Veronese).
Bertina S. Manning, Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition, exh. cat., Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., 1958, 5, 42, no. 2.
Robert L. Manning, Venetian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century, exh. cat., Finch College Museum of Art, New York, N.Y., 1963, no. 7.
F. Richardson, "Two Exhibitions of Venetian Painting at Finch College," Art Quarterly XXVII (1964): 356-357.
Robert L. Manning, Italian Renaissance and Baroque Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., exh. cat., Norfolk Museum of Arts and Science, Norfolk, Va., 1967, 12, fig. 8.
Melinda Kay Lesher, Italian Renaissance Paintings from Southern Museums, exh. cat., The Mint Museum, Charlotte, N.C., 1981, no. 18.
Jane Martineau and Charles Hope, eds., The Genius Of Venice, 1500-1600, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts London, England, 1983, 152-153.
Simonetta Simonetti, "Profilo di Bonifacio de' Pitati," Saggi e Memorie, di Storia dell'Arte 15 (1986): 116-117; ill. p. 275.
Jefferson C. Harrison, "Italian Art - Fourteenth To Sixteenth Century," The Chrysler Museum Gallery Guide (Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum, 1987), 4, no. 9.
Pierre Dantraique, La Peinture Venitienne (Neuchatel: Ides et Calendes, 1989), 140, illustrated.
Jefferson C. Harrison, The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings (Norfolk: The Chrysler Museum, 1991), 12, no. 11.
Ruth Mellinkoff, "Titian's Pastoral Scene: A Unique Rendition of Lot and His Daughters," Renaissance Quarterly 51 (1998): 841-842, fig. 17.
Bernard Aikema and Beverly Louise Brown, ed., Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Dürer, and Titian, exh. cat., Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy, 1999, 452-453, no. 120.

Bonifazio de' Pitati
Italian, 1487-1553
Lot and His Daughters, ca. 1545
Oil on canvas, 47" x 64½"
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 71.622

When Lot learns that God wants to destroy the city of Sodom for its wickedness (Genesis 19:1-38),
he escapes to the hills with his family. Lot's unfortunate wife stands at the harbor's edge. As
she turns to see the city aflame, she becomes a pillar of salt. The foreground shows a later
scene in the story: Lot's daughters are anxious to preserve the family line in the midst of their
isolation. They plot to make their father drunk, and then they seduce him. The descendents of
their unions will become the Israelites' enemies.

Renaissance artists frequently depicted this story. Bonifazio de' Pitati treats it as a moralizing
allegory of the age-old conflict between voluptas (lust) and virtue. One daughter defiantly stares
at us, her body frontal and her limbs splayed, as she pours wine into her father's bowl. The other
daughter sits in near-profile, thoughtfully holding a mirror (symbol of prudence and self-
knowledge). Bonifazio also encourages the viewer to think about the nature of truth and deceit:
as one putto frankly touches the daughter's back, the other wears a concealing mask with
features that mock the old man's lecherous folly. Although the picture has suffered damage over
the years, the artist's mastery of the Venetian painting tradition can be seen in his nuanced
rendering of light on silks and ceramics, and his subtle expression of human psychology.