Symbolism (movement)

Symbolism was a major art movement that emerged in the late 19th century. It originated in France and Belgium through poetry and other creative arts. The movement sought to represent absolute truths using symbols and metaphorical images. This approach served as a direct reaction against naturalism and realism. Those earlier styles tried to show reality in its gritty, ordinary details. Symbolists, however, wanted to focus on spirituality, imagination, and dreams. They believed art should express the Ideal rather than just describing the physical world.

To understand the mechanism of Symbolism, one must look at how it handles objects. Instead of naming a thing directly, Symbolists preferred to suggest it. The poet Stéphane Mallarmé explained that naming an object destroys much of a poem's delight. The goal is to allow the reader to guess the meaning little by little. This process creates a sense of mystery and enigma. Artists used sensory experiences to point toward deeper, archetypal meanings. They did not want to depict a thing, but rather the effect that thing produces on the human soul.

Symbolist techniques often involved a concept called synesthesia. This is the practice of identifying one sense experience with another. For example, a poet might describe a scent as being "green like the meadows." Or they might describe a sound as being "sweet like an oboe." This technique helped confound the separate senses of smell, sound, and color. They also worked to liberate the techniques of versification. This allowed for more fluidity in writing, which eventually led to the development of free verse.

Several distinct groups and styles interacted with Symbolism during its rise. The movement was distinct from the Decadents, who often focused on sexuality and taboo topics. While the Decadents mixed these interests with a sense of world-weariness, Symbolists focused on the spiritual. Symbolists also had a complex relationship with Parnassianism. This was a French literary style that valued clarity and objectivity. While Symbolists rejected that strict objectivity, they kept the Parnassian love for wordplay and musical verse. They also continued to follow the motto of "art for art's sake."

The history of the movement is tied to several key figures and dates. It began to take shape with the 1857 publication of Charles Baudelaire's *Les Fleurs du mal*. Baudelaire was greatly influenced by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. During the 1860s and 1870s, Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine developed the aesthetic further. In 1886, the critic Jean Moréas published the "Symbolist Manifesto" in the newspaper *Le Figaro*. This document officially named Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Verlaine as the movement's leading poets. Moréas used the term "symbolist" specifically to distinguish these artists from the Decadents.

Symbolism had a significant impact across many different fields. While it started in literature, Symbolist painting spread throughout the entire Western world. In Paris, the critic Joséphin Péladan promoted the movement through the Salon de la Rose + Croix. This salon hosted six presentations of avant-garde art, music, and writing during the 1890s. These events provided a space for artists embracing mysticism and idealism. Furthermore, the movement influenced major later writers. For instance, T. S. Eliot was influenced by poets like Jules Laforgue and Paul Valéry.

The very word "symbolism" connects to ancient traditions of recognition. The term comes from the Greek *symbolon*, which was an object used to prove an alliance. In ancient Greece, an inscribed shard of pottery was broken into two pieces. Ambassadors from allied city-states would each carry one half. When they met, they would reassemble the pieces to recognize one another. Symbolists viewed the physical universe in a similar way. They believed the world was a language of signs. To them, every concrete phenomenon was a veiled reflection pointing to higher, esoteric ideas.