Symbolism (arts)

Symbolism was a late nineteenth century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts.

Aftermath

In the English speaking world, the closest counterpart to Symbolism was Aestheticism; the Pre-Raphaelites, also, were contemporaries of the earlier Symbolists, and have much in common with them. Symbolism had a significant influence on Modernism and its traces can be seen in a number of modernist artists, including T. S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Conrad Aiken, and William Butler Yeats in the anglophone tradition and Rubén Darío in Hispanic letters. Edmund Wilson's 1931 study Axel's Castle focuses on the continuity with Symbolism and a number of important writers of the early twentieth century, with a particular focus on Yeats, Eliot, Paul Valéry, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein. The early poems of Guillaume Apollinaire have strong affinities with Symbolism.

Related Topics:
English - Aestheticism - Pre-Raphaelite - Modernism - T. S. Eliot - Wallace Stevens - Conrad Aiken - William Butler Yeats - Rubén Darío - Edmund Wilson - 1931 - Paul Valéry - Marcel Proust - James Joyce - Gertrude Stein - Guillaume Apollinaire

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As the movement was losing its forward movement in France, after the turn of the twentieth century it became a major force in Russian poetry. The Russian Symbolist movement, steeped in the Eastern Orthodoxy and the religious docrines of Vladimir Solovyov, had little in common with the French movement of the same name. It was the starting point of the careers of several major poets such as Alexander Blok, Andrei Bely, and Marina Tsvetaeva. Bely's novel Petersburg (1912) is considered the greatest monument of Russian symbolist prose.

Related Topics:
Twentieth century - Russian poetry - Russian Symbolist movement - Eastern Orthodoxy - Vladimir Solovyov - Alexander Blok - Andrei Bely - Marina Tsvetaeva

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The Symbolist painters were an important influence on expressionism and surrealism in painting, two movements which descend directly from Symbolism proper. The harlequins, paupers, and clowns of Pablo Picasso's "blue period" show the influence of Symbolism, and especially of Puvis de Chavannes. In Belgium, where Symbolism had penetrated deeply, so much so that it came to be thought of as a national style, the static strangeness of painters like René Magritte can be seen as a direct continuation of Symbolism. The work of some Symbolist visual artists directly impacted the curvilinear forms of art nouveau.

Related Topics:
Expressionism - Surrealism - Harlequin - Pablo Picasso - Belgium - René Magritte - Art nouveau

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Many early motion pictures, also, contain a good deal of Symbolist visual imagery and themes in their staging, set designs, and imagery. The films of German Expressionism owe a great deal to Symbolist imagery. The virginal "good girls" seen in the films of D. W. Griffith, and the silent movie "bad girls" portrayed by Theda Bara, both show the continuing influence of Symbolist imagery, as do the Babylonian scenes from Griffith's Intolerance. Symbolist imagery lived on longest in the horror film; as late as 1932, a horror film such as Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr shows the obvious influence of Symbolist imagery; parts of the film resemble tableau vivant re-creations of the early paintings of Edvard Munch.

Related Topics:
Motion pictures - German Expressionism - D. W. Griffith - Silent movie - Theda Bara - Babylon - Intolerance - Horror film - 1932 - Carl Theodor Dreyer - Vampyr - Edvard Munch

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