The Brazen Serpent (Bruni)

The Brazen Serpent
ArtistFyodor Bruni
Year1841
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions565 cm × 852 cm (222 in × 335 in)
LocationRussian Museum, Saint Petersburg

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.[1][2][3]

Bruni's inspiration for the painting was a story described in the Old Testament[4] 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.[5][6]

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.[2][7] 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.[8]

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.[9] 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".[10]

The surface of the canvas is about 48 m2, the weight of the canvas is about 70 kg.[11] It is considered to be the largest Russian history painting,[2] the largest painting in the collection of the State Russian Museum,[12] and the largest among easel paintings of the first half of the 19th century.[13]

  1. ^ Государственный Русский музей — Живопись, XVIII — начало XX века (каталог). — Л.: Аврора; Искусство, 1980. — 448 p. — P. 59.
  2. ^ a b c 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.
  3. ^ Бруни Фёдор Антонович — Медный змий, 1841 (HTML). http://www.art-catalog.ru. Дата обращения: 26 June 2015. Archive: 4 March 2016.
  4. ^ Ветхий Завет, Книга Чисел: Чис. 21:4—9.
  5. ^ Степанова С. С. Русская живопись эпохи Карла Брюллова и Александра Иванова: Личность и художественный процесс. — СПб.: Искусство-СПб, 2011. — 288 p. — P. 171-173. — ISBN 978-5-210-01638-6.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 106.
  8. ^ Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 124-125.
  9. ^ Верещагина А. Г. Федор Антонович Бруни. — Л.: Художник РСФСР, 1985. — 256 p. — P. 149-150.
  10. ^ Бенуа А. Н. Русская школа живописи / Н. Н. Дубовицкая. — М.: Арт-Родник, 1997. — 334 p. — P. 49. — ISBN 978-5-88896-019-6.
  11. ^ Анна Матвеева. Размер получил значение (HTML). Известия — izvestia.ru (3 November 2004). Дата обращения: 27 June 2015. Archive: 6 March 2016.
  12. ^ Д. Д. Воронцов, А. П. Маслов. Русское искусство в вопросах и ответах. — СПб.: Симпозиум, 1997. — 269 p. — ISBN 5-89091-006-X. — ISBN 978-5-89091-006-6.
  13. ^ В. А. Гусев, Е. Н. Петрова. Русский музей: альбом, путеводитель. — СПб.: П-2, 2001. — 135 p. — ISBN 978-5-93893-040-7.