Lot and His Daughters
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 22.2 × 27.7 cm (8 3/4 × 10 15/16 in.); Plate: 22.6 × 27.7 cm (8 15/16 × 10 15/16 in.); Sheet: 24.7 × 28.5 cm (9 3/4 × 11 1/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
145835
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Joseph-Marie Vien made two etchings of this subject, both in 1748. The first was after his own painted copy of Jean-François de Troy's 1745 painting. In this second, more personal version of the subject, Vien suppressed the erotic elements of the earlier composition. He brought greater weight and dignity to the subject, showing Lot's seduction by his daughters in a realistic fashion.
About the Artist
Joseph Marie Vien, I · 1716–1809
Joseph-Marie Vien (1716–1809) was born in Montpellier and trained in Paris under Charles-Joseph Natoire. A brilliant student, he won the Prix de Rome in 1743 and spent the years 1744 to 1750 at the French Academy in Rome, where his encounter with the antiquarian scholarship of the Comte de Caylus and the early stirrings of neoclassical taste around the discoveries at Herculaneum and Pompeii proved...