Lot and his daughters artemisia gentileschi biography for kids

I have blogged about this female artist before and you can search this site for previous blog posts which highlight several of her beautiful paintings. This female artist was rare for her time and, as was to be expected, she had a torrid experience within the male-dominated artistic world that she inhabited. Her father was Orazio Gentileschi , also an artist, and he too painted on the same theme, although I think his painting pictured here differs in interpretation.

Because of her experience with the opposite sex an acquaintance of Orazio took advantage of Artemisia and raped her , Artemisia tended to paint strong women, or at least women with a mission or purpose which often seemed to involve revenge on men who were deemed evil in the stories from the Bible that she chose to paint. There are strong motives for the young women at play in this painting and Lot, although he was willing to partake of bread and wine and ultimately gave his daughters offspring, may have been a little in the dark regarding what was to ultimately occur.

The cave is dark but the light seems to come from the left and highlights the fact that the sisters have bread and wine. Lot looks adoringly or admiringly at one of his beautifully dressed daughters on the right of the picture and the daughter on the left seems to be encouraging him to relax and drink. Looking at the painting through a female lens we see both a strong desire to reproduce but also a hesitancy perhaps to judge the characters too harshly.

The daughters had decided upon their plan and the looks on their faces seem to suggest that they were rather determined to carry it out.

Lot and his daughters artemisia gentileschi biography for kids: Early life​​ Artemisia Lomi

Artemisia may have seen them as strong women who turned the tables on their situation and ultimately produced the nations of Moab and Ammon. This is a beautiful example of 17th century Italian baroque. I also love that they have bare feet.