[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.

[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.

(Numbers 21:8-9)Bruni himself, discussing the idea of the painting, wrote: "I tried to make it so that at first glance it would evoke the pathetic pathos of this terrible scene and bear the stamp of God's punishment.

[14] In the center of the painting, in the background, is the prophet Moses, pointing with his staff at the brass serpent and signaling with his other hand to approach it.

They are frightened and desperate, not even thinking of seeking salvation or looking at the bronze snake: it is as if they do not hear Moses or are simply incapable of heeding his advice.

In early sketches and in the first version (underpainting) of the painting, Bruni depicted a group of four people reaching for the bronze snake — a man carrying an old father, his wife and his son.

In the final version of the painting, the group is very different — the son, his leg bandaged from the fatal bite, dying in the arms of his father and mother.

On the right of the painting, a man carries his exhausted wife in his arms, looking hopefully towards the "Brazen Serpent" — dressed in white, she most clearly symbolises religious insight and faith in healing, with Bruni himself characterising her state as "ecstasy".

[20] As a landscape, Bruni depicted, in his own words, a place 'in the middle of the stony Arabian desert near the Red Sea, where high, steep cliffs rise, the foothills of Mount Or[en]'.

The dark landscape, with storm clouds from which poisonous snakes fall, emphasises the ruthlessness of the punishment and the horror that engulfed the people.

[6] In February 1827, Bruni reported to the Society for the Encouragement of Artists (SEA) that he was beginning to work on a large painting based on an Old Testament story.

[23] In 1833 he had underpainted a general sketch (cardboard), and in early 1834 he reported that his "painting 'Moses' will soon be finisged" and that "everyone is horrified by its enormity, especially the Germans", but he did not really care: "as soon as we have money, everything would be fine".

Since Bruni was still working on the painting "The Brazen Serpent", he tried to postpone the date of his departure from Italy, and the diplomat Nikolai Guriev, who was an envoy to Rome at that time, interceded for him.

In the end, the highest permission was obtained, the documents were drawn up, and in September 1838 Bruni went to Rome with his wife Angelica and his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Teresa.

In 1839, he wrote a letter to the Minister of the Imperial Court, Peter Volkonsky, complaining about the difficult financial situation due to the fact that he had stopped paying his salary.

Finally, April 15, 1841, he reported that "a large, depicting Moses painting, the execution of which necessitated my trip to Rome, is completely finished".

[31] After the opening of the museum in 1898, it was exhibited in the Mikhailovsky Palace, in the same room with another painting by Bruni, "The Death of Camilla, Sister of Horace".

According to the recollections of Alexander Benois, in the same room were "The Last Day of Pompeii" and "The Siege of Pskov" by Bryullov, "Christian Martyrs in the Colosseum" by Flavitsky, "The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection" by Ivanov, "Last Supper" by Ge, and two or three other paintings by Aivazovsky.

For such large-format paintings as "Brazen Serpent", wooden shafts up to 10 meters long and 60 to 120 cm in diameter were specially made, on which they were wound.

The work on the painting "Brazen Serpent" was carried out by a specially created team of the Russian Museum's Restoration Department, which included Andrei Bogomolov, Anton Makarov and Alexander Minin.

After the restoration was completed, an exhibition was held in early 2003, which, in addition to the updated "Brazen Serpent", included the cardboards used by Bruni in preparation for the painting.

[39][40] Nowadays, the painting "Brazen Serpent" is exhibited in the Hall 15 of the Mikhailovsky Palace, where, in addition to it, are exhibited "The Heroism of the Young Kiev" by Andrey Ivanov, "Testing the strength of Jan Usmar" by Grigory Ugryumov, "Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection" by Alexander Ivanov, as well as his sketches and studies for the painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People".

[10] The literary historian and censor Alexander Nikitenko wrote in his diary on 27 October 1841: "I went to the palace and saw Bruni's painting 'Brazen Serpent'.

[44] On this basis, Shevyryov believed that "the main action of the painting" was connected with the image of the woman being carried by her husband: on her face "a ray of healing has already shone".

At the same time, according to Shevyryov, by depicting a man lying in agony in the centre of the painting, the artist "wanted to present us with a gloomy picture of unbelief".

[45] Another literary critic, Vasily Botkin, noted that "opinions about this painting are divided: some see it as a deeply respectable work of the professor, others — the creation of a high talent.

[46][47] The poet and pedagogue Alexander Balasoglo wrote: "The raising of the brass snake in the desert by Moses" is a huge work, the first painting in the Academy of Arts in terms of size.