The artwork, titled “The Light Shineth in Darkness and the Darkness Comprehendeth It Not,” was created by Evelyn De Morgan in 1906. De Morgan’s piece belongs to the Romanticism movement, and it is a religious painting imbued with symbolic elements.
In the artwork, an ethereal angelic figure, bathed in radiant light, hovers majestically above three prostrate, chained human figures. The angel, wrapped in luminescent white garments and adorned with resplendent wings, embodies an aura of divine purity and enlightenment. The light emanates from behind the angel, creating a spectrum of warm hues that contrast starkly with the dark, shadowy environment. Below, the human figures, depicted in a state of despair and subjugation, are cast in dim lighting, accentuating their earthly suffering and the darkness that envelops them. This symbolic painting strikingly juxtaposes light and darkness, conveying themes of divine illumination and human sorrow.
