Characteristics of the Symbolist Movement - Essay Example

Characteristics of the Symbolist Movement Artists, discontent with their culture, formed the idealistic SymbolistMovement. Their style of art was intellectual, subtle, elitist, elegant, and refined (Symons and Ellman 127). Among the most important principle of the art style was the fundamental mystery of life, and the need to preserve and respect this particular mystery. The defining characteristic of symbolist art was promotion of synthesis (128). This synthesis was in the sense of uniting all forms of art, as well as the synthesis based on media convergence concerning literature and internationalism.

The symbolist art not only associated itself with a main corpus of critical and theoretical writing, but also a poetry-oriented literary output. This brought about a convergence of literature and art, developing a modus operandi for art movements around the world during the 20th century. The style of art also led to the extinction of the old meanings by creating new networks of meanings that updated the myth and interpretation of origins. Symbolist art achieved this by fusing mythological and religious themes through such figures like Orpheus and Salome.

Another character of the style was the militant anti-academicism achieved through ‘secessionist’ organizations in 1890s, which coincided with liberalization of the system of exhibition. Symbolist art promoted the prevalence of spirits of the then anti-modernism. This means that the style rejected naturalism, positivism, and rationalism, resulting to the culmination of the 1910 art piece, The Oath against Modernism (130). The doctrine of idealism was the foundation pillar of the symbolist art style, thus much of the art and literature had association with the concepts of idealism and/or Satanism.

Among the favorite topic of symbolist art were occultisms, decadence, love, sin, death, religious feelings among others. Oedipus and the Sphinx by Gustave Moreau Retrieved on Feb 13, 2012, from http://iamapurpleicicle.blogspot.com/2011/05/2-art-critics-help-viewers-perceive.html Work Cited Symons, Arthur and Ellman Richard. The Symbolist Movement in Literature. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2004. Print.