The Brazen Serpent is a giant painting by the Russian artist of Italian origin Fyodor Bruni (1799-1875), completed in 1841. It is part of the collection of the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg (inventory number Zh-5070). The size of the painting is 565×852 cm.Государственный Русский музей — Живопись, XVIII — начало XX века (каталог). — Л.: Аврора; Искусство, 1980. — 448 p. — P. 59.Бруни Фёдор Антонович — Медный змий, 1841 (HTML). http://www.art-catalog.ru. Дата обращения: 26 June 2015. Archive: 4 March 2016.
Bruni's inspiration for the painting was a story described in the Old TestamentВетхий Завет, Книга Чисел: Чис. 21:4—9. about how the Jewish people, led out of Egypt by the prophet Moses, began to lose faith and murmur after years of wandering in the stony desert. This led to God's punishment — a rain of poisonous snakes to save them from the deadly bites of a brazen serpent.Степанова С. С. Русская живопись эпохи Карла Брюллова и Александра Иванова: Личность и художественный процесс. — СПб.: Искусство-СПб, 2011. — 288 p. — P. 171-173. — .С. С. Степанова. Чудо веры и гибельность неверия: «Медный змий» Фёдора Бруни (HTML). «Наука и религия», 2010, No. 11. Дата обращения: 27 June 2015. Archive: 4 March 2016.
Bruni worked on this painting for about fifteen years: he informed the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts that he had begun work on the large painting in February 1827, and completed it in 1841.Бруни Ф. А. Медный змий. 1841 (HTML). Русский музей — виртуальный филиал — http://www.virtualrm.spb.ru. Дата обращения: 26 June 2015. Archive: 4 March 2016.Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 106. In 1833-1836 he worked in Italy, then he was called back to Saint Petersburg to teach at the Imperial Academy of Arts, and in 1838 he returned to Rome, where he completed the painting.Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 124-125.
The painting was sent to Russia in the summer of 1841, after a successful exhibition in Rome. It was exhibited in the Winter Palace and after a while it was transferred to the Academy of Arts.Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 149-150. From the very beginning, "The Brazen Serpent" was often compared with Karl Bryullov's large-format painting "The Last Day of Pompeii", which appeared seven years earlier - later, both paintings were exhibited side by side in the Hermitage and the Russian Museum; they were called "colossi of Russian painting".Бенуа А. Н. Русская школа живописи / Н. Н. Дубовицкая. — М.: Арт-Родник, 1997. — 334 p. — P. 49. — .
The surface of the canvas is about 48 m2, the weight of the canvas is about 70 kg.Анна Матвеева. Размер получил значение (HTML). Известия — izvestia.ru (3 November 2004). Дата обращения: 27 June 2015. Archive: 6 March 2016. It is considered to be the largest Russian history painting, the largest painting in the collection of the State Russian Museum,Д. Д. Воронцов, А. П. Маслов. Русское искусство в вопросах и ответах. — СПб.: Симпозиум, 1997. — 269 p. — . — . and the largest among easel paintings of the first half of the 19th century.В. А. Гусев, Е. Н. Петрова. Русский музей: альбом, путеводитель. — СПб.: П-2, 2001. — 135 p. — .
Plot and description The plot of The Brazen Serpent is based on a story described in the Old Testament, in the Book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Torah. After years of wandering in the waterless, stony desert through which Moses led the people of Judah out of Egyptian captivity, the people began to murmur because they doubted the prophet's ability to lead them. Then the Lord's punishment came upon them-the rain of poisonous serpents. They repented and began to ask for forgiveness, and then Moses set up the brazen serpent, as the Lord had commanded him, so that those who looked at it with true faith would live and be healed of the serpent's bites:"Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake image and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. Whenever someone was bitten, and he looked at the bronze snake, he recovered’”. (Numbers 21:8-9)Bruni himself, discussing the idea of the painting, wrote: "I tried to make it so that at first glance it would evoke the pathetic pathos of this terrible scene and bear the stamp of God's punishment. The final version of the painting is a huge multi-figure composition, in which it is difficult to distinguish any main character. Some people seek salvation in the bronze snake, while others panic and try to avoid the rain of live snakes. Some are shocked by the death of their loved ones, some pray to God for forgiveness, and some curse him and Moses. The painting is full of depictions of grief, pain, horror, and death.Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 125-126.
In the center of the painting, in the background, is the prophet Moses, pointing with his staff at the brass serpent and signaling with his other hand to approach it. His gaze is stern as he looks over the heads of the suffering people. Next to him stands the high priest Eleazar, son of Aaron, Moses' brother, and behind them a group of Levites. Moses and Eleazar are placed in the geometric center of the canvas, symbolizing supernatural power — on the one hand, to punish (Eleazar), and on the other, to show the way to salvation (Moses).Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 130.
But it is not Moses and Eleazar, but the people in the larger foreground of the painting who first attract the viewer's attention. They are frightened and desperate, not even thinking of seeking salvation or looking at the bronze snake: it is as if they do not hear Moses or are simply incapable of heeding his advice. In the centre of the painting is a young man of athletic build, writhing in agony from snakebites. His leg is coiled with a snake, and his mouth is wide open: apparently cursing everyone "in fury and blasphemy".Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 126.Петинова Е. Ф. Русские художники XVIII — начала XX века. — СПб.: Аврора, 2001. — 345 p. — P. 116. — . His figure is sometimes compared to Lanae. Sometimes his figure is compared to Laocoon, the priest of the god Apollo in Troy, who according to legend was strangled by snakes with his sons ("Laocoon and his sons").
In the right foreground of the painting, a woman rushes towards her husband in fear and despair. The woman's face bears a resemblance to that of Angelica, Bruni's wife. Such an introduction of the artist's native image into the painting can be seen as a manifestation of romanticism in history painting. This woman is the local centre of the right-hand side of the painting: everyone around her is also gripped by terror. The fact that many people seek protection from their relatives and friends does not quite fit in with the biblical description, according to which it was enough to look at a bronze snake to heal people.
The foreground of the left side of the canvas underwent significant changes during the course of the painting. In early sketches and in the first version (underpainting) of the painting, Bruni depicted a group of four people reaching for the bronze snake — a man carrying an old father, his wife and his son. In the final version of the painting, the group is very different — the son, his leg bandaged from the fatal bite, dying in the arms of his father and mother. Despite the depth of their grief, they do not try to reach the bronze snake: apparently having lost all hope of saving their son.Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 126-127.
To her right, a girl bent over the stone. Bruni himself described her as follows: "She is an orphan, robbed of everything on earth. She embraces, half kneeling, a stone. This stone is the only refuge for the wretched. She embraces it, weeping, and waters it with her tears". And the artist continued: "One of her brothers, still an infant, lies beside this stone — grief. I painted him dead of hunger".Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 127.
To the right of the girl, in the background, the artist has depicted a man leaning over a dying young woman (a bride, according to Bruni). He tries in vain to open her eyes in the hope that she will see the bronze snake. Nearby, leaning over her and putting her hand to the dying woman's heart, is an older woman, her mother.
At the same time, some of the people in the background of the painting are approaching the serpent, searching for salvation. Among them is a mother with an infant, standing at the foot of a column, holding the baby's hands to it. On the right of the painting, a man carries his exhausted wife in his arms, looking hopefully towards the "Brazen Serpent" — dressed in white, she most clearly symbolises religious insight and faith in healing, with Bruni himself characterising her state as "ecstasy".Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 129.
The mother of two children to her left seems to be looking at this woman. But she is not: in fact she is looking up at the sky from which snakes are falling and, according to Bruni, 'fearing for her children, she wants to cover them with the hollow of her clothes'. Still to the left is a kneeling woman with a dead child in front of her. Although she is facing the bronze snake, there is no faith in redemption in her gaze, only maternal grief and resignation to fate.
As a landscape, Bruni depicted, in his own words, a place 'in the middle of the stony Arabian desert near the Red Sea, where high, steep cliffs rise, the foothills of Mount Or[en]'. As the artist had never been there himself, the whole landscape was painted by his imagination: the rocks and mountains, the earth and the sky. The dark landscape, with storm clouds from which poisonous snakes fall, emphasises the ruthlessness of the punishment and the horror that engulfed the people. In this sense, the landscape plays the role of an actor in the painting. Together with the effects of light and colour, this can be seen as a manifestation of Romanticism in Bruni's classicism painting.Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 137-138.
As for the lighting of the painting, it is conditional, since it is impossible to identify a specific source of light. Most of the sky is covered with clouds, with only a small gap visible in the distance, but clearly not enough to illuminate the entire space of the painting. The groups of people in the foreground and background are relatively evenly lit. Nevertheless, some figures seem to be emitting light of their own, such as the woman dressed in white and carried by her husband.Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 138.
History Fyodor Bruni worked on the painting for about fifteen years, with the earliest sketch on the subject dating from 1824. In February 1827, Bruni reported to the Society for the Encouragement of Artists (SEA) that he was beginning to work on a large painting based on an Old Testament story. He noted that among his sketches, he had "stopped on one in particular, which I would like to produce in a large painting... it represents the erection of a bronze snake in the desert". The SEA's committee, which generally approved of the artist's idea, tried in the same year to warn him of the difficulties involved in creating a large multi-figure composition, to which Bruni replied that "the figures in the above picture will be life-size... and therefore the whole picture will be quite large, but since it has already begun, I do not want to leave it".