The Brazen Serpent

The Brazen Serpent (c. 1635-40) at the National Gallery depicts the Old Testament episode from Numbers 21 where Moses erected a bronze serpent on a pole so that any Israelite bitten by the venomous snakes God had sent as punishment could look at it and be healed — a subject that Catholic theology read as a typological prefiguration of Christ's crucifixion, the brazen serpent on the pole anticipating the Son of God elevated on the cross. The typological connection, emphasized by Christ himself in John 3, made the subject important in Counter-Reformation visual culture as evidence of Old Testament prophecy finding its fulfillment in the New. Rubens's late treatment, with its writhing figures, dramatic lighting, and the compositional urgency of the suffering crowd seeking relief, draws on his extensive experience of depicting physical extremity — from his Fall of the Damned to his multiple Crucifixion compositions — while the supernatural resolution (simply looking at the elevated serpent heals the bites) provided a visual analogue for the redemptive act of gazing on the crucified Christ. The National Gallery's London holding represents a significant late Rubens in the British national collection.

The composition fills the canvas with figures in various stages of agony and healing, creating a dynamic arrangement of intertwined bodies. Rubens' late style with its fluid brushwork and warm palette is fully evident in the rendering of flesh and movement.

This late work from 1638 shows Rubens's continued ability to orchestrate complex multi-figure compositions. The canvas has been conserved with attention to the dramatic lighting contrasts. The painting has been relined and some retouching addresses losses in the darker passages.