The Brazen Serpent

Details

Circle of Frans Floris (Antwerp c. 1520-1570)
The Brazen Serpent
oil on panel
128 x 184.5 cm

Provenance

Miss M.C. Boellaard, Utrecht. Fonds, Utrecht, 1885; gift to Genootschap Stichting Boellaard Fonds, Utrecht, 1885; on loan to the Centraal Museum, Utrecht, from 1919 to 1990; subsequently sold to Genootschap Kunstliefde, Utrecht, 2006.

Literature

Catalogus der Schilderijen, Utrecht, Centraal Museum, 1933, p. 160, no. 341, as Netherlandish Master, c. 1600.
Catalogus der Schilderijen, Utrecht, Centraal Museum, 1952, p. 397, no. 1166, as Netherlandish Master, c. 1600.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The Book of Numbers tells the story of the Lord sending a plague of serpents to punish the Jews for their lack of faith which caused many to die. When the people repented, Moses interceded with God and was instructed 'Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live' (Old Testament, numbers 21: 6-9). It taught Christians to see the brazen serpent as a divinely authenticated type of the Crucifixion and that he can be saved only by faith in Christ crucified. Typically the Israelites are depicted writhing on the ground, their limbs entwined by snakes. The T-shaped pole on which Moses fixed a serpent made of brass can be seen in the background. John's gospel furnishes the typological parallel 'This Son of Man must be lifted up as the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness'.

Another composition with the same subject by Frans Floris was engraved by Pieter van der Heyden (see C. van de Velde, Frans Floris, 1519/20-1570, Brussels, 1975, II, no. 167, illustrated).

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