Mors Janua Vitae

The title translates as: “Death, the Door to Life”. This funerary monument was commissioned by Eliza Macloghlin for herself and her husband Percy, a provincial doctor. A bronze and marble version in the Royal College of Surgeons in London holds their ashes. The couple were atheists. The symbolic panels on the memorial’s lower part refer not to Christianity but to their mutual passion, with Anteros (selfless love) on the left hand and Eros (sexual love) on the right. This preliminary version was worked on and painted by the artist himself and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1907.