The Flight of Lot
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Genesis 19:24
The passage
Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;
Genesis 19:24
About this plate
Four people, moving right to left across the front of the plate. Lot in the middle in a heavy hooded cloak, a daughter bent low in front of him with her hands over her head, another at his shoulder with her hands clasped. Behind and above them, on the rise, his wife.
The cities are almost nothing. A thin band of flame along the horizon at the far left, and then an enormous rolling tower of smoke that takes up half the sky. Between the fire and the family the plain is bare, pale and wide.
The verse is entirely about the cities. Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven. No family in it at all. They come in the verses either side.
Doré gives the burning three inches and the walking away the rest. And the wife is still upright behind them, the only one in the picture with her face towards it.
Swipe left or right for the next plate