The Worship of Mammon

Evelyn De Morgan painted The Worship of Mammon in 1909 as a hard critique of material greed and industrial capitalism. The whole concept comes straight from the biblical Gospel of Matthew, which basically states that humanity cannot serve both God and Mammon—the ancient Syriac symbol for extreme wealth and worldliness. The painting shows a desperate woman crouching on the ground, physically gripping the legs of a massive, bronze-like statue of Mammon. The statue is just staring down at her with a devious smirk, casually holding out a heavy bag of gold. But the real tragedy of the scene is in the details. The woman is completely fixated on the statue itself, ignoring the actual money. Curators at the De Morgan Foundation point out that by worshipping the literal embodiment of greed instead of just wanting the gold, she has completely severed her connection to the divine and doomed her own soul. Because De Morgan was an ardent Spiritualist, she used specific color choices to make the scene feel even heavier. The woman is wrapped in pink and purple robes. Usually, De Morgan used those colors to show spiritual purity and religious devotion, but here they are just crumpled up on the floor in an act of blind worship. On top of that, the dark blue sky in the background represents the oppressive, dark presence of materialism. By cropping the giant statue so tightly in the frame, De Morgan makes Mammon look totally dominant, turning the painting into a timeless warning about the corrupting power of wealth.