This was a common subject
from the Renaissance through the Baroque
and beyond: Lot and his daughters,
the latter getting him drunk
so that they can sleep with him,
believing that the rest of humanity died
as Sodom and Gomorrah perished,
and that they have to carry his offspring
to save it. So science fictional;
and in these paintings, this misguided
incest for the sake of believed greater
good becomes pornography,
nowhere as revealingly as
in these two paintings.
The girl, seemingly the younger sister,
whose breast Lot graps
looks directly at the viewer.
There is nothing of the lust of the
intoxicated old man in her eyes.
In other paintings of Lot and his daughters
the voyeur is not acknowledged, drawn
into the drunken sex scene.
They are allowed to enjoy their
religiously veiled pornography without
having to accept their role in it.
Here, the sullen gaze of the girl
forces the viewer to accept
their role as part of the painting
- that it's not for the continuation
of humankind that these two girls
are seducing Lot, it's for the
sake of titillating the audience
of the painting. They are degrading
themselves so that the voyeur
can enjoy his pornography,
sanctified by the biblical theme.
30.01.2022
#Poem #Poems #Poetry
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