(Leipzig circa 1500–1562 Annaberg)
Lot and his daughters,
monogrammed lower right: AH (ligated),
oil on panel laid down on panel, 46 x 36 cm, framed

Provenance:
Noble collection, Germany;
by descent to the present owner

We are grateful to Gunnar Heydenreich, Cranach Digital Archive Cologne, for confirming the present painting as an autograph work by Antonius Heusler following first-hand inspection and analysis by IRR.

We are also grateful to Ingo Sandner for confirming the attribution. He intends to publish this work in his forthcoming monograph on the artist.

The Old Testament story of Lot and his daughters was a popular subject for artists, because of its moralising potential and dramatic possibilities, and one which Antonius Heusler painted several times. Lot, having flown from the sinful city of Sodom along with his family, is being plied with alcohol by his two daughters, who intend to seduce him and ensure the continuation of the human race. The present painting closely relates to an almost identical composition (oil on beech wood, 48 x 36 cm) conserved in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig (inv. no. GG 30).

Antonius Heusler was born around 1500 and possibly came from Annaberg in Saxony. It seems that after his early training in Annaberg Heusler joined the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder in Wittenberg around 1522. He remained in contact with the Wittenberg workshop after his return to Annaberg around 1526. Heusler’s paintings are rare, but he was a highly respected artist, his relative prosperity documented by the purchase of several properties.