symbolist
Meaning through metaphor
A symbolist is someone who uses or interprets symbols, or who practices symbolism in art, literature, or thought.
Most often the term refers to artists and writers associated with Symbolism, the late 19th-century movement that rejected realism in favor of suggestion, dreams, and spiritual meaning: The symbolist poets influenced surrealism.
More broadly, anyone who reads symbolic meaning into things: a symbolist interpreter of dreams.
French decadent poet
- YeatsIrish Nobel poet
- synesthesiaInvoluntary sensory crossover
- musicalitySensitivity to tune, rhythm
- suggestionIdea proposed for consideration
Rilke · evocation · ambiguity · sonnet · verse · cadence · imagery · correspondences
Idea proposed for consideration
- evocationCalling forth to mind
- mysterySomething unexplained or unknown
- ambiguityOpenness to multiple interpretations
- nuanceSlight shade of difference
mood · atmosphere · dreamlike · ineffable · indirect · allusive · veiled · sensuous
Austrian symbolist painter
- MunchNorwegian symbolist painter
- visionaryImaginative planner of futures
- dreamlikeHazy and fantastical
- mythologicalOf traditional sacred narratives
enigmatic · atmospheric · suggestive · palette · composition · motif · allegory · ethereal
Symbolic tale with deeper meaning
- metaphorImplied identity comparison
- imageryVivid descriptive language
- allusionIndirect reference to something
- emblemRepresentational sign or device
motif · signifier · representation · connotation · figurative · analogy · parable · correspondence
Involuntary sleep visions
- mythTraditional explanatory tale
- spiritualityConnection to the sacred
- deathCessation of life
- erosLife and love instinct
femme fatale · soul · transcendence · mysticism · occult · decadence · melancholy · otherworldly
Century's closing cultural moment
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
- Post-ImpressionismMovement following Impressionism
- Art NouveauCurvilinear decorative movement, 1890s
- RomanticismEmotion-centered artistic movement
manifesto · salon · coterie · artistic movement · modernism · reaction · idealism · subjectivism
Baudelaire
French decadent poet
- YeatsIrish Nobel poet
- synesthesiaInvoluntary sensory crossover
- musicalitySensitivity to tune, rhythm
Rilke · suggestion · evocation · ambiguity · sonnet · verse · cadence · imagery · correspondences
suggestion
Idea proposed for consideration
- evocationCalling forth to mind
- mysterySomething unexplained or unknown
- ambiguityOpenness to multiple interpretations
nuance · mood · atmosphere · dreamlike · ineffable · indirect · allusive · veiled · sensuous · musicality
Klimt
Austrian symbolist painter
- MunchNorwegian symbolist painter
- visionaryImaginative planner of futures
- dreamlikeHazy and fantastical
mythological · enigmatic · atmospheric · suggestive · palette · composition · motif · allegory · ethereal · fantastical
allegory
Symbolic tale with deeper meaning
- metaphorImplied identity comparison
- imageryVivid descriptive language
- allusionIndirect reference to something
emblem · motif · signifier · representation · connotation · figurative · analogy · parable · correspondence · suggestiveness
dreams
Involuntary sleep visions
- mythTraditional explanatory tale
- spiritualityConnection to the sacred
- deathCessation of life
eros · femme fatale · soul · transcendence · mysticism · occult · decadence · melancholy · otherworldly · sacred
fin de siècle
Century's closing cultural moment
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
- Post-ImpressionismMovement following Impressionism
- Art NouveauCurvilinear decorative movement, 1890s
Romanticism · manifesto · salon · coterie · artistic movement · modernism · reaction · idealism · subjectivism
- poetspoet, Homer, Dante, Milton, Emily Dickinson
- French poetryBaudelaire, Charles Baudelaire, Hugo, Victor Hugo, La Fontaine
- poetry typeshaiku, sonnet, limerick, ballad, ode
- aesthetesOscar Wilde, dandy, connoisseur, art lover, Baudelaire
- writersauthor, novelist, writer, poet, journalist
- art movementsPop Art, pop art, Impressionism, impressionism, Surrealism
symbolistliteralist
One rejecting figurative meaning
textualist · fundamentalist · strict constructionist · empiricist · positivist
symbolistrealist
One accepting hard truths
naturalist · photorealist · documentarian · regionalist · objectivist
- 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, symbolism, symbolized, symbolizes, symbolizing, symbolization, symbolists