Getty Museum
Border with Moses and the Brazen Serpent
Creator
Simon BeningFlemish Illuminator · 1483–1561
All works by this person →One of the most celebrated painters of Flanders in the 1500s, Simon Bening was hailed by Portuguese art critic Francisco da Hollanda as the greatest master of illumination in all of Europe. In addition to producing books for powerful aristocrats such as Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, Bening worked for a group of international royal patrons including Emperor Charles V and Don Fernando, the Infan
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1525–1530
- Medium
- Tempera colors, gold paint, and gold leaf
- Culture
- Flemish
- Department
- Manuscripts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
After speaking out against God, the Israelites were plagued with serpents, seen here in the lower border as vicious reptiles crawling over the bodies of three men. When Moses asked God what he could do to remedy the situation, he was told to make a bronze image of a serpent and set it on a pole; this image then had a miraculous power to cure those suffering from snakebites. Christ linked the story of Moses and the serpent to his own eventual crucifixion, saying, "As Moses raised the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be raised." (John 3:14) Following this understanding of the Old Testament story as a prefiguration of the Crucifixion, Simon Bening paired this border with an image of the Crucifixion on the facing page.
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