Who painted The Flight of Lot and His Family from Sodom (after Rubens)?

Jacob Jordaens painted The Flight of Lot and His Family from Sodom (after Rubens) in 1618.

What Bible passage does The Flight of Lot and His Family from Sodom (after Rubens) depict?

The Flight of Lot and His Family from Sodom (after Rubens) depicts the biblical scene from Genesis 19:14-29.

Home
Genesis
Genesis 19
The Flight of Lot and His Family from Sodom (after Rubens)

The Flight of Lot and His Family from Sodom (after Rubens) by Jacob Jordaens

Share Facebook X Pinterest Reddit LinkedIn Email

The scene of Lot and his family fleeing the sinful city of Sodom at the behest of two angels is based on the Old Testament Book of Genesis:19. The hesitating figure of Lot is shown in the center with his wife seen in profile to his left and his two daughters, trying to carry their riches with them, behind him to the right. They are shown in a gloomy unsettled scene as Lot abandons his position in the town in accordance with an order from God. The pillar seen in the central back section of the composition prefigures the fate of Lot's wife, who is turned into a pillar of salt when she looks back at the city.There are three other known works that have essentially the same dimensions and composition as this work (Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida; Private collection). A comparison of the details of these works was thought to be a good method of clarifying Rubens's studio methods, and thus in the summer of 1993 a study exhibition entitled The Flight of Lot and his Family from Sodom: Rubens and his Workshop was held at the NMWA. The exhibition brought together the NMWA work alongside the two oil paintings from the Bass and Ringling museums, a reproduction engraving of the composition by Lucas Vorsterman, and preparatory sketches for the engraving. The details of the works were surveyed during the exhibition, opinions were exchanged by specialists from the NMWA and other institutions, and the following was clarified. In spite of the fact that the Ringling work includes some student work in its secondary elements, it is overwhelmingly superior in quality and can be considered an original work by Rubens. The Bass work is probably a studio work based on the Ringling work. The NMWA painting has more stereotyped expression in such areas as the beards and angel wings, sections that would have allowed a master's talents to shine, and thus it is thought that the NMWA work is a studio work created under the direction of Rubens. However, in many areas the NMWA work differs from the Ringling painting. Thus, while not yet confirmed, the theory regarding the NMWA work that has the greatest support today is R-A. d'Hulst's view that this painting was from the earliest period of Jacob Jordaens, a young collaborator of Rubens, particularly based on the vigorous depiction of the bodies and the cool, pale lavender tones used in the work. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 28)

Details

Artist: Jacob Jordaens
Created: 1618 - 1620
Passage: Genesis 19:14-29

Found in: Genesis, Genesis 19, 17th century

Genesis 19:14-29

14 Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

15 When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”

16 But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.

17 It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”

18 Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord.

19 See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.

20 See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.”

21 He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

22 Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

24 Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.

25 He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.

26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.

28 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

29 When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

Genesis 19:14-29 · World English Bible

The artist

Jacob Jordaens

1593 - 1678

Antwerp, Belgium

Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and tapestry designer known for his history paintings, genre scenes and portraits. After Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he was the leading Flemish Baroque painter of his day. Unlike those contemporaries he never travelled abroad to study Italian painting, and his career is marked by an indifference to their intellectual and courtly aspirations. In fact, except for a few short trips to locations…