Storytelling in Miniature

Heinrich Aldegrever
German, 1502–about 1561

Lot and His Family Leaving Sodom, from “The Story of Lot”

Engraving, 1555
4 1/2 x 3 1/16 in.
Museum purchase, 1923.3159

In this print Heinrich Aldegrever shows Lot being reluctantly led away from the gates of Sodom by an angel. In the story of Lot and his family, as told in the book of Genesis, the town of Sodom was destroyed by God. Behind and to the right are Lot’s daughters, who carry some of the family possessions as they flee the doomed city:

And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying: ‘Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters that are here; lest thou be swept away in the iniquity of the city.’ But he lingered; and the men (angels) laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him. And they brought him forth, and set him without the city.
(Book of Genesis)