PROVENANCE: Schieffelin Crosby, Cold Spring, N.Y.; Victor Spark, New York; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn., 1941-1942 (on loan from Victor Spark); BJU, 1959.

Little is known of Matthias Stomer’s career except that he painted most of his work in Italy. Flight from Sodom may be one of the few paintings that he completed while still in the Netherlands. Intense pastel colors, stiffly shimmering drapery, and distinct facial types are typical of his style. Specific figure types, like the angel here, recur in many of his other paintings. The frieze-like composition and specific details (like the dog leading the procession) reflect Stomer’s debt to Rubens’ work of the same subject found in the Ringling Museum of Art in Florida.

This dramatic narrative painting portrays God’s justice and His mercy. God mercifully agreed to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if ten righteous persons could be found within their gates. Only four were found, but when God judged the cities for their immorality, He sent angels to lead Lot and his family out of harm’s way.