Lot and His Daughters

This 18th-century print on laid paper by an anonymous artist is from the collection donated by Valentín Carderera. It illustrates a passage from Genesis (19:30–38) that has been frequently depicted throughout the history of art. Lot and his daughters left Zoar and headed to the mountains, because they were afraid to stay in the city. They lived together in a cave. With the intention of having children, and faced with the absence of men, the daughters got their elderly father drunk and slept with him, as depicted in the print. The eldest conceived a son called Moab, and the youngest another son, called Ben-Ammi. The scene also shows the city of Sodom burning. This was the disaster that caused Lot's wife to turn into a pillar of salt when she turned to look back at it after being forbidden from doing so.