Lot Leaving Sodom

Lot fleeing Sodom with his daughters was a subject that combined nocturnal drama with moral urgency—the burning city providing a spectacular backdrop for Caravaggist treatment. Stom’s 1630 version, now at the Bob Jones University Museum in Greenville, South Carolina, was painted during his Roman period. The subject offered multiple light sources: divine fire, angelic radiance, and the distant conflagration. Stom's mastery of candlelight effects was among the most technically accomplished of all Caravaggist painters, surpassing many of his contemporaries in the subtlety of his graduated shadows and the warmth of his artificial illumination.

Multiple competing light sources—the burning city behind, angelic radiance ahead—create unusual chromatic complexity for a Caravaggist composition. The figures’ hurried movement is conveyed through agitated drapery folds.