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 found place on one wall. When, later on, they were transported to the Museum of Alexander III, they were again hung together, as if they were really twins. After the creation of the "Brazen Serpent" Bruni's life flowed on in an even and undisturbed stream. Struggle was unknown to him. He was overburdened with orders for church decorations; in addition, his small icons and images were immediately bought up by amateurs. The rest of his time he devoted to pedagogical activity at the Academy, where he held the office of rector for sixteen years. He was also in charge of the Mosaics Department, and of the Hermitage.

Bruni is looked upon in Russia as a mystic. In fact, this intelligent and keen man was not averse to the profundities of religious thought and religious poetry, yet it can hardly be asserted that his art possessed a great depth. Bruni is, above all, a decorator, a great master of grouping, colouring and painting, but all these merits of his are purely external. On the contrary, the types he created are mere conventional outlines, his pathos is theatrical, and his mystical "visions" show too clearly the threads they are sewn with, what the French call "truc." Of course, this in no way deprives him of the high place he occupies. Let us remember that Raphael's, too, was an external talent. In the magnificence of his well sustained and nearly flawless