Some pictures are worth a thousand words.
This one was created in 1885 by the British symbolist painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts (1817—1904). The symbolists painted “ideas, not things.”
The grim-faced heavy-set figure in golden raiment, sitting on his throne and crushing the life and spirit out of the young boy and girl, symbolizes Mammon. Mammon is a biblical term for the power of money and material wealth. Medieval writers envisioned Mammon as a demon.