Symbolism

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Symbolism
Gustave Moreau's "Jupiter and Semele" (1895)
Other names	Symbolist Movement
Decade of origin	Late-19th century
Creator/s	Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Jean Moréas, and Stéphane Mallarmé
Key motifs	Dreams, visions, myths, the occult, the erotic, death, the subconscious
Key colours	Often muted or evocative colours; use of light and shadow to create mood
Key values	Subjectivity, emotion, spirituality, the power of suggestion, exploration of inner experience
Related aesthetics	Aestheticism Art Nouveau Decadence Romanticism Synthetism

Symbolism was a late 19th-century literary and artistic movement that emphasized the communication of ideas and emotions through symbolic means rather than direct representation. In contrast to Impressionism's focus on the surface reality of the painted subject, Symbolism sought to convey deeper meanings and psychological truths through forms, colours, and compositions. Symbolist artists aimed to represent the subjective inner world, exploring themes such as dreams, spirituality, and the mystical. The movement can be seen as a transition from Romanticism to modernism, developing novel methods to express abstract concepts and the notion of a spiritual reality underlying the physical world. Symbolists endeavoured to give tangible form to intangible experiences like visions and dreams.

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