Symbolism
Art through suggestion
Symbolism was a late 19th-century artistic and literary movement originating in France, reacting against realism and naturalism.
Symbolist poets like Mallarmé and Verlaine favored suggestion over direct statement, using evocative imagery to express emotional and spiritual states.
The movement influenced painting, theater, and music, prioritizing mood and subjective experience over literal representation. (Lowercase symbolism is the general use of symbols.)
Century's closing period
- decadenceMoral decline through excess
- aestheticismValuing beauty above ethics
- Post-ImpressionismMovement following Impressionism
- Art NouveauCurvilinear decorative movement, 1890s
Involuntary sleep visions
- deathCessation of life
- mythologyBody of traditional tales
- mysticismPursuit of divine union
- spiritualityConnection to the sacred
emotion · subconscious · decadence · melancholy · eros · femme fatale · soul · transcendence
Austrian symbolist painter
Idea proposed for consideration
- evocationCalling forth to mind
- ambiguityOpenness to multiple interpretations
- synesthesiaInvoluntary sensory crossover
- dreamlike imageryVisuals evoking sleep states
Expressionist image of dread
fin-de-siècle
Century's closing period
- decadenceMoral decline through excess
- aestheticismValuing beauty above ethics
- Post-ImpressionismMovement following Impressionism
dreams
Involuntary sleep visions
spirituality · emotion · subconscious · decadence · melancholy · eros · femme fatale · soul · transcendence · occult
Klimt
Austrian symbolist painter
suggestion
Idea proposed for consideration
- evocationCalling forth to mind
- ambiguityOpenness to multiple interpretations
- synesthesiaInvoluntary sensory crossover
The Scream
Expressionist image of dread
- art formspainting, drawing, sculpture, photography, music
- 19th century artsImpressionism, Romanticism, Realism, opera, symphony
- art historyart history, Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionism, modern art
- French LiteratureVictor Hugo, Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Dumas, Jules Verne
- art movementsPop Art, pop art, Impressionism, impressionism, Surrealism
- literary movementsRomanticism, Realism, Modernism, Surrealism, Neoclassicism
Symbolismliteralism
Exact meaning only
directness · explicitness · plain speech · denotation · straightforwardness
Symbolismempiricism
Knowledge through observation
positivism · materialism · rationalism · objectivism · scientific objectivity
- symbolic giftsPresents conveying deeper meaning
- symbolic gestureAction representing abstract meaning
- religious symbolismMeaningful imagery in faith
- symbolic actDeed with representative meaning
- symbolic figureRepresentation of abstract concept
- symbolic meaningRepresentational significance beyond literal
symbolic, symbolize, symbolized, symbolizes, symbolizing, symbolically, symbolization