Orazio Gentileschi

Lot's Daughters, c.1622–23, Oil on canvas, 164.6 x 193.4cm, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; inv. no. 70.2, ©️ Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz / Jörg P. Anders

The Morning After

Commentary by Jennifer Moldenhauer

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Compared with the other two objects in this exhibition, the painting by the Italian artist Orazio Gentileschi (1562–1640) is characterized by clear restraint. There is no trace of lasciviousness. Dawn is breaking over the hill. Lot is still lying on the lap of one of his daughters. His furrowed brow suggests that he is no longer asleep but feeling uneasy. Perhaps he realizes what happened last night and why his robe is pushed up, as is that of his other daughter. Or is he still feeling the effects of the wine, which (as the overturned vessel at lower left declares) has been completely drunk?

What the daughter in the foreground is pointing to eludes the viewer. Perhaps she is indicating the cities destroyed by burning sulphur in the Jordan plain (Genesis 19:24). The Bible is silent about what exactly happens to Lot and his daughters after those two nights, except that both daughters get pregnant and each one gives birth to a son. The eldest daughter names her son Moab, which means ‘from my father’, explicitly denoting the union as an incestuous one. The younger names her son Ben-Ammi, which means ‘son of my clan’.

The fact that the daughters are the ones who give the children their names (as opposed to their shared father) fits their development within the narrative into the story’s active protagonists. Their sons become the progenitors of two great peoples, the Moabites and the Ammonites. In the Old Testament, there are predominantly anti-Moabite tendencies (e.g. Deuteronomy 23:3–6), which probably have their roots in the wars between Judah / Israel and Moab over territorial claims. On the other hand, in the book of Ruth, the narrative makes a Moabite woman the ancestral mother of the Judaean royal house (Ruth 4:13–17). Thus, an ancestral mother of Jesus Christ can also be recognized in the elder daughter of Lot. Perhaps the daughter’s gesture points to this very significant future of her people. For there is no fear or despair on her face, but rather her concentrated gaze and forward-looking posture indicate a departure towards new horizons.

See full exhibition for Genesis 19:30–38

Genesis 19:30–38

Revised Standard Version

30 Now Lot went up out of Zoʹar, and dwelt in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to dwell in Zoʹar; so he dwelt in a cave with his two daughters. 31And the first-born said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. 32Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring through our father.” 33So they made their father drink wine that night; and the first-born went in, and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 34And on the next day, the first-born said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring through our father.” 35So they made their father drink wine that night also; and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 36Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 37The first-born bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

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