Lot and His Daughters

Jean-François de Troy's Lot and His Daughters is a feast of Rococo frivolity couched in the harrowing Old Testament tale of incest and human survival. In Genesis (19:30-38), two angels advised Lot's family to seek refuge from God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, lest thou be consumed." In a weak moment, Lot's wife looked back and metamorphosed into a pillar of salt, shown here in an insignificant detail beyond the mouth of the cave. Fearing they were the last women on earth, Lot's daughters seduced their father with wine and bore him two sons.
In the present painting, de Troy's inebriated hero ogles his sexy, bare breasted daughter, who lies across his lap and suggestively fingers his left hand. Taking advantage of this temporary diversion, his second, equally exposed daughter fills Lot's wine glass from behind.