Very Large Oil On Canvas – Moses And The Brazen Serpent – 17th-18th Century

Very large oil on canvas depicting Moses and the Brazen Serpent. Work from the late 17th or early 18th century. Unrelined work, old restorations, dent on Moses' head, wear and repainting, 19th century wooden frame. It is in the condition it came out of the attic. Based on the work "The Brazen Serpent, c. 1647-1659, Charles Le Brun (1619-1650) Oil on canvas, 95 x 133cm, Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery” Our canvas measures 190x223cm. Contact us for delivery. A work identical to ours is present in the parish church of Robion in the Vaucluse. It is dated from the end of the 17th century. DUMOULIN, André. Robion. Monograph. Cavaillon, Imprimerie Mistral, 1977. p154. Reissued by Impressions Modernes. Guilherand-Granges (Ardèche): 2009. Analysis of the work By Venceslas Deblock The painter Charles Le Brun illustrates here a scene from the book of Numbers (chapter 21), which reminds us that only God is savior, and that it is by looking evil in the face that we will free ourselves from it. This work unfolds the whole range of expressions and human passions. Before a rocky mass in which they seem to gradually dissolve, the Hebrews writhe, attacked by burning serpents that insinuate themselves everywhere and wrap themselves around their limbs. Sent by God, tired of the recriminations of his people, their bite is fatal. In this scene of divine punishment, a sign that God is master of death and life, Le Brun can deploy numerous characters prey to the whole range of passions, as was said in the 17th century. The episode invites us above all, in the heart of this Lent, to place our faith in God who alone gives life. For here, if the Lord sends death, he also offers healing, in the form of a bronze serpent that he orders Moses to raise on a mast, so that all the sick may look at it and be healed. Le Brun excels at painting the diversity of reactions. Some, especially concentrated on the right of the work, choose to flee, run, climb... turning away of God who can heal them. Their faces and gestures express terror. The others have understood that one cannot save oneself. They choose to look at the bronze serpent that Moses points out to them in the name of God. Their gestures are no longer a disordered chaos, but a still painful supplication. In the middle of the work, a man radiates. Turned towards the bronze serpent, draped in white like a shroud, his flesh is alive. A sort of prefiguration of the resurrected Lazarus, his arms open to welcome the Salvation of God in which he believes. Behind him, like a sort of dying counterpart, a ghostly silhouette turns away from the saving mast and completes its disappearance. The figure of Moses and the erected mast emerge from the rocky masses and stand out against a wide-open horizon, bathed in the light of the rising sun. The Exodus of all life is an experience of combat against evil, which must be faced in order to recognize its need to be saved by God. To place one's trust in him is to walk toward an infinite horizon. The mast on which the bronze serpent was erected timidly turns green again. It announces the cross on which the Son of Man will be raised, a source of new life for those who place their faith in him.