Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), after - Lot e le figlie

Technical sheet
Type: antique print / original engraving
Author / Cartographer / Engraver: Willem Swanenburg
Designer: Peter Paul Rubens
Publisher / Printer: N. a Waesberghe
Place: Netherlands
Period / Date: 1662
Technique: copper-plate burin engraving (intaglio)
Support: laid rag paper mounted on board
Subject / Title: Lot and His Daughters
Dimensions: 37.5 × 31 cm engraving
Composition: single plate with an allegorical biblical scene and a Latin distich engraved at the lower margin

Description
Important 17th-century Baroque engraving executed by Willem Swanenburg after the design of Peter Paul Rubens, depicting the famous biblical episode of Lot and his Daughters from Genesis. The scene shows Lot seated at the center of the composition while the two daughters assist him and offer him wine, alluding to the episode after the destruction of Sodom in which the young women get their father drunk to ensure a lineage for the family. The compositional arrangement, with strong Baroque theatricality, derives directly from Rubens’ monumental language and develops through a dynamic construction of the figures, flowing draperies, and an intense chiaroscuro magnificently rendered by a dense network of burin marks.

The engraving quality is particularly high, with notable attention to anatomical rendering, the textures of the fabrics, and tonal transitions. The work features at the bottom a moralizing Latin distich that complements the allegorical reading of the scene in line with the Nordic figurative tradition of the Seicento. The inscriptions “Pet. Paul Rubens pinx.” and “W. Swanenburg sculp.” identify respectively the author of the painting’s design and the engraver, while the presence of the publisher “N. a Waesberghe” and the date 1612 place the work precisely within the Dutch publishing production of the 17th century.

Historical-artistic note
Peter Paul Rubens was one of the central figures of European Baroque painting, and his compositions were widely disseminated through engravings by leading Flemish and Dutch engravers of the 17th century. Willem Swanenburg, active from the late 16th to the mid-17th century, is known for the technical precision and tonal quality of his engraving translations. The subject Lot and His Daughters was particularly valued in Baroque culture for its strong moral and symbolic content, offering artists the opportunity to develop dramatic and sensuous compositions of great visual impact. The work is catalogued within the graphic tradition derived from Rubens’ inventions and can be linked to copies held in major European museum collections.

Condition Report
Edition trimmed at the margins of the impression and subsequently mounted on a rigid support. Light oxidations, small signs of aging, and widespread traces of handling consistent with the period. The impression remains clearly legible with good overall preservation of the engraving line and tonal contrast.