Aurora Triumphans

When you look at Evelyn De Morgan’s Aurora Triumphans (1886), you’re essentially looking at a massive visual transition state between physical limitation and absolute freedom. The composition is engineered to capture the exact, explosive second that light overrides darkness. In the lower right corner, you have Aurora—the Roman goddess of the dawn—rendered as this glowing, nude figure breaking out of the heavy bindings of Night, draped only in a delicate rope of pink roses. Right next to her, the dark-robed figure of Night is actively shrinking away into the shadows, her face completely hidden from the viewer. Towering above the entire scene, three striking red-winged angels in gold tunics are blowing trumpets, acting as the heralds signaling the arrival of a new day. But this isn't just a standard mythological render. According to peer-reviewed analysis by art historian Dr. Elise Lawton Smith, De Morgan used this specific mythology as a hardcoded spiritualist metaphor. Because De Morgan was such an ardent Spiritualist, she used the shift from night to dawn as a direct allegory for the human soul breaking out of the heavy, physical hardware of earthly life (represented by Night) and launching into the illuminated eternal spiritual realm (represented by Aurora and the angels). What makes the history of the actual physical canvas so fascinating is the sheer market manipulation it went through. After it was completed, an unscrupulous art dealer completely painted over De Morgan’s original signature with the initials of Edward Burne-Jones just to artificially inflate its price tag. It was actually acquired by Herbert Russell-Cotes around 1922 under the false assumption that it was a Burne-Jones original, before the piece was finally debugged and reattributed to its rightful creator. Ultimately, De Morgan manages to take classical Roman mythology and totally repurpose it to build a profound, timeless statement on spiritual rebirth.