Symbolism (arts)

Symbolism was a behind 19th-century art movement of French, Russian as well as Belgian origin in poetry as living as other arts seeking to exist absolute truths symbolically through Linguistic communication & metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism in addition to realism.

In literature, the variety originates with the 1857 publication of Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal. The workings of Edgar Allan Poe, which Baudelaire admired greatly and translated into French, were a significant influence and the consultation of numerous stock tropes and images. The aesthetic was developed by Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine during the 1860s and 1870s. In the 1880s, the aesthetic was articulated by a series of manifestos and attracted a category of writers. The term "symbolist" was first applied by the critic Jean Moréas, who invented the term to distinguish the Symbolists from the related Decadents of literature and of art.

Precursors and origins

Symbolism was largely a reaction against naturalism and realism, anti-idealistic styles which were attempts to make up reality in its gritty particularity, and to elevate the humble and the ordinary over the ideal. Symbolism was a reaction in favour of spirituality, the imagination, and dreams. Some writers, such(a) as Joris-Karl Huysmans, began as naturalists before becoming symbolists; for Huysmans, this conform represented his increasing interest in religion and spirituality.of the characteristic subjects of the Decadents represent naturalist interest in sexuality and taboo topics, but in their case this was mixed with Byronic romanticism and the world-weariness characteristic of the fin de siècle period.

The Symbolist poets form a more complex relationship with L'Album zutique.

One of Symbolism's near colourful promoters in Paris was art and literary critic and occultist Joséphin Péladan, who instituting the Salon de la Rose + Croix. The Salon hosted a series of six presentations of avant-garde art, writing and music during the 1890s, to manage a filed space for artists embracing spiritualism, mysticism, and idealism in their work. A number of Symbolists were associated with the Salon.