Image Details

Moses invokes the Nechushtan on his staff in this 18th-century painting by Giambattista Tiepolo housed in the Accademia in Venice. The painting depicts the incident in which the Israelites who complain about the food in the desert are punished by snake bites, but then are cured by looking at the Nechushtan—the bronze snake fashioned by Moses at God’s command (Numbers 21:4–9).