Abraham's Parting from the Family of Lot

Abraham's Parting from the Family of Lot

Abraham's Parting from the Family of Lot

Artist:Jan Victors (Dutch, Amsterdam 1619–1676/77 East Indies)
Date:ca. 1655–65
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:58 x 65 1/8 in. (147.3 x 165.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Purchase, 1871
Catalogue Entry
For at least one hundred twenty years, this late work by Victors was thought to represent Jacob and Laban. Its far less familiar subject, first identified by Manuth (1987), is actually Abraham's departure for Canaan, leaving Lot and his family, who will set off for Sodom (Genesis 13). Victors's Old Testament pictures can require close reading, occasionally because of free interpretation, but more often because of unexpected subject matter. It seems likely that the artist's orthodox Calvinist beliefs, and like-minded patrons, directed him to certain biblical passages, much as they required him to avoid others.
Abraham and his nephew Lot (whose father, Haran, has died) have journeyed from Egypt to the plain of Jordan, where there is a dispute between their respective herdsmen about grazing land. Abraham generously tells Lot to choose whatever territory he would prefer: "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left" (Genesis 13:8–9).
In the painting, Lot's well-known strain of weakness is written plainly on his face and in his posture. Like his daughters, who will eventually seduce him (Genesis 19:31–35), Lot sits idly at the dinner table (not mentioned in the Bible), while Abraham, in a fur-lined robe, gestures with Mosaic decisiveness. Lot's wife, who later becomes the pillar of salt, appears to smile at the patriarch's largess. In the background, herders debate the issue, while sheep as thick as cotton graze the land that was "not able to bear them" (Genesis 13:6).
Victors's late work reveals little stylistic development, although there is a falling off of quality at the end. This canvas, which is characteristically oversize, probably dates from about 1655–65.
[2016; adapted from Liedtke 2007]

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