Lot and his daughters by Sir Peter Paul Rubens. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The Biblical account of Lot and his daughters has been the subject matter of many paintings, including one of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), the Flemish baroque painter.

The oil on canvas, 2.25 meters long and 1.9 meters high, was produced from 1613 to 1614. It illustrates a scene in which the three, after fleeing Sodom, take a mountain cave as refuge and the two daughters seduced their father with drinks, hoping to conceive Lot's child — the only way the daughters believed the family lineage could be carried on.

The painting Lot and His Daughters will lead an evening auction on July 7 by Sotheby's in London.

It has been kept in private hands, including the first recorded owner, Antwerp merchant Balthazar Courtois, John Churchill the first Duke of Marlborough and then entrepreneur Baron Maurice de Hirsch de Gereuth, from whom the painting has been passed on and kept by his descendents.