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For God so loved the world
Anthony van Dyck, The Brazen Serpent, c. 1618–20
- Painter
- Anthony van Dyck
- Collection
- Museo del Prado, Madrid
- Scripture
- Numbers 21:9
- Published
- 4 October 2026
- Image
- Wikimedia Commons, public domain ↗
Two verses earlier Jesus reaches back to Numbers 21: whoever had been bitten and looked up at the serpent of brass on its pole stayed alive. “Even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” Van Dyck was about twenty when he painted the bitten straining towards the pole.
Van Dyck painted this in the years when he worked in Rubens's studio in Antwerp. For a long time the picture passed as a Rubens, and a false signature with his name still stands at the lower edge.
Moses, seen from behind, holds up the pole with the serpent of brass, and hands stretch out towards it.
A woman who has been bitten is turned towards the pole by the people around her. Looking is all that is asked of her.