Symbolism.pptSYMBOLISM
“The goal of painting cannot be the direct representation of objects. Its end purpose is to express ideas as it translates them into a special language.
The artists sees (objects) as signs (…) and must carefully avoid concrete truth, illusionism, trompe l’oeil.
…the work of art (…) is idealist, symbolist, synthetic, and decorative.”
--Albert Aurier (excerpts)
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PIERRE PUVIS DE CHAVANNES, Sacred Grove, 1884. Oil on canvas, 2’ 11 1/2” x 6’ 10”. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (Potter Palmer Collection
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes depicts a mythological landscape that bears little resemblance to a real landscape. Instead it relies heavily upon fantasy and is entirely subjective while also being representational. Symbolists were concerned with depicting ideas from the imagination. Symbolists rejected Realism. Writers like the poet Rimbaud emphasized the importance of insight in his poems which influenced Symbolist painters. He and other Symbolists divorced themselves from reality and instead delved into the realm of mysticism, prophecy, and the imagination. Puvis rejected both Impressionism and Realism and really stands alone but was a tremendous influence on subsequent symbolist painters. The Sacred Grove evokes a place outside the mainstream of capitalism and mechanization.
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SYMBOLISM DEFINED:
- Extreme subjectivism
- Use of fantasy and imagination as subject matter
- Work against conventional mores of society, materialism, industrialization
- Eliminate the utilitarian in literature and art
- Cultivate an exquisite aesthetic sensitivity
- Exaggerate the esoteric and exotic, the mysterious, visionary, dreamlike, and fantastic
- At the time the Symbolist writers and artists are developing their system of aesthetics, Sigmund Freud began his new science of psychiatry specializing in dream analysis and examining the subconscious
Illustration for the libretto of Salomé by Aubrey Beardsley
GUSTAVE MOREAU, Jupiter and Semele, ca. 1875. Oil on canvas, 7’ x 3’ 4”. Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris
Gustave Moreau was a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts toward the end of his life but lived most of his life as a recluse in Paris. He was inspired by the work od Delacroix but his subject matter focused on imagination and spirituality in keeping with the Symbolist aesthetic. Many of his paintings reflect stories from the Bible or mythology which he views through a subjective, psychological lens. In this work, he tells the story of Jupiter and Semele. Semele is a mortal woman who is the mother of Dionysius, a god associated with pleasure and intoxication. In the story, Juno the jealous wife of Jupiter tells Semele to ask Jupiter to appear to him in all of his glory but his dazzling appearance accompanied by thunder and lightening caused Semele to die of fright. “At the foot of the throne, Death and Sorrow form the tragic basis of Human Life, and not far from them, under the aegis of the eagle of Jupiter, the great Pan, symbol of Earth, bows his sorrowful brow, mourning his slavery and exile, while at his feet is piled the somber phalanx of the monsters of Erebus and Night. The other figures include Hecate (a witch like female) and a snake biting its own tail. There are other demons and angels evoking a complex composition of life and death.
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GUSTAVE MOREAU, The Apparition, 1874–1876. Watercolor on paper, 3’ 5 3/4” X 2’ 4 3/8”. Louvre, Paris.
Many artistic and literary contemporaries of Moreau were fascinated by the Biblical story of Salome which for them exemplified the exaggerated idea of female sexuality or the femme fatale, the female figure as a destructive and seductive presence. In this story, which Moreau painted twice, and which was made into an opera, Salome promises to dance erotically for King Herod, her stepfather, in exchange for the death of John the Baptist who was being held prisoner by Herod. St. John fascinated Salome but because he spurned her she wanted to exact revenge upon him. She refuses to dance until she sees his severed head. The head is set off by a radiant circle of light, dripping with blood. This fascination with a willfully sexualized female figure capable of an extreme act of revenge is prevalent in Symbolist and Decadent works including an opera with music by Richard Strauss, libretto by Oscar Wilde, and illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley. Moreau’s work prefigures the Surrealists.
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AUBREY BEARDSLEY, The Peacock Skirt, 1894. Pen-and-ink illustration for Oscar Wilde’s Salome’, 9” X 6 5/8”. Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge (bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop).
Another take on the Symbolist and Decadent’s obsession with Salome is realized here in the work of Aubrey Beardsley. As mentioned Beardsley illustrated the libretto with these strange but compelling pen and ink illustrations. Although he is allied to the Symbolists, some of the style of his work also accords with Art Nouveau, a style we will examine as it pertains to design, fashion, and architecture.
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ODILON REDON, The Cyclops, 1898. Oil on canvas, 2’ 1” x 1’ 8”. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
Odilon Redon, another French Symbolist was interested in visionary power and the inner workings of the psyche. He wrote that when he was young “imaginary things” haunted him. Here he paints a dreamlike narrative based on mythology. Unlike Moreau’s saturated palette, Redon employed loose brushwork and chose the subject inspired by the mythological story of the Cyclops. In Redon’s interpretation, Cyclops (or Polyphemus the Giant from Homer’s Odyssey) looks down upon the nymph Galatea. He loves her and Redon renders the monstrous Cyclops empathetically instead of fearsomely. Redon said, “All my originality consists...in making unreal creatures live humanely by putting as much as possible the logic of the visible at the service of the invisible.”
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Left: Raphael Galatea, 1513, Fresco Right: Redon, Cyclops 1898, oil on canvas
On the left is a more conventional view of the story of Cyclops and Galatea where the great Renaissance artist Raphael depicts Galatea fleeing from Cyclops who she was promised to. She loves Acis instead and in Homer’s story Acis is crushed by a boulder by Cyclops because of jealously.
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HENRI ROUSSEAU, The Dream, 1910. Oil on canvas, 6’ 8 1/2" X 9’ 9 1/2”. Museum of Modern Art, New York (gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller).
Rousseau’s work is also about the world of his imagination and personal fantasy. Rousseau was an unlikely painter—he was self-taught after working most of his life for the French government as a customs agent. When he retired he turned to painting and his lack of formal training was initially a hindrance to his acceptance. However, the primitive quality of his paintings, and the dreamlike subject matter underscores the fact the he was a contemporary of Freud and his fantastic imagery aligns well with the Symbolist movement. Rousseau’s emphasis on the dream state, and Freud’s scientific examination of the subconscious later informed the work of the Surrealists.
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HENRI ROUSSEAU, Sleeping Gypsy, 1897. Oil on canvas, 4’ 3” x 6’ 7”. Museum of Modern Art, New York
This painting by Rousseau takes place under the light of the moon. The gypsy is sleeping unaware that a lion is nearby. Is the lion a menace or a harmless symbolic presence? This painting visualizes the state of unconsciousness when the sleeper is unaware of danger or perhaps is about to experience a pleasant dream or nightmare. This was painted 13 years earlier than the previous work. Sadly, Rousseau was not very well appreciated during his lifetime because of his lack of formal training. But he is a model for today, and inspired the Surrealists.
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JAMES ENSOR, Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889, 1888. Oil on canvas,
8’ 3 1/2” X 14’ 1 1/2”. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
The Symbolist movement spread throughout Europe. The work of the Belgian artist James Ensor is considered Symbolist but prefigures Expressionism. He cofounded a group called Les Vingts (the Twenties) who were Belgian artists that banded together and held un-juried exhibitions. This painting filled with an enormous cast of people also contains a message. Christ’s Entry into Brussels may also be a critical response to Seurat’s La Grande Jatte which was exhibited in Brussels in 1887. This images belongs to the Symbolist movement because it depicts an idea that occurs solely in the imagination of the artist. It is a social commentary about what Ensor believed to be a decadent world. He imagined if Christ were to enter the streets of Brussels and how he would be received. In his imagination, Ensor was convinced that the inhabitants on the crowded streets would ignore the importance of the Christ figure if who he places at the center of the background complete with halo. Some banners carried by the crowds read “Long Live Jesus King of Brussels” while other banners read “Long Live the Socialist State”. The sickly, garish color palette, and the ugly mask like faces extend his message of disgust.
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EDVARD MUNCH, The Scream, 1893. Tempura and pastels on cardboard, 2’ 11 3/4” x 2’ 5”. National Gallery, Oslo.
Edvard Munch’s the Scream has been so often reproduced that its impact has been dulled by overexposure. However, this painting underscores the emotional intensity of modern life and presents primal emotion. Munch’s beloved sister died of tuberculosis when he was a teenager which scarred him for life. Munch’s mother died of the same disease a decade before. Munch’s goal as a painter was to describe what he called “modern psychic life”. Here we see the abstract figure’s scream being carried off into the background, sky awash with garish colors, and almost palpably nauseating waves emanating from the bridge where the autobiographical figure stands. Munch, influenced by Gauguin, writes of this moment when he walked across the bridge in a state of intoxication, “I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun was setting. I felt a breath of melancholy—suddenly the sky turned blood red. I stopped, leaning against the railing (…) my friends walked on—I stood there trembling with fear. And I sensed a great, infinite scream pass through nature.” This painting expresses the pressures of modern life.
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GUSTAV KLIMT, The Kiss, 1907–1908. Oil on canvas, 5‘10 3/4” x 5’ 10 3/4”. Österreichische Galerie Belvedere,Vienna
Klimt, a Viennese artist pictures a couple embraced in a passionate kiss. The face of the female is filled with tenderness, the only really representative aspect of this composition. The man’s head is only suggested by the muscular neck and the head of hair crowned with a laurel wreath. The rest of their bodies are intertwined in an embrace that becomes abstracted by the complex decorative elements including the geometric shapes of the male body and the rounder, more floral shapes of the female. They kneel on a flat field of flowers which unites the two bodies. The patterns that Klimt uses are strongly allied to the Arts and Crafts movement in Vienna, and exemplifies the contrast between two and three dimensional imagery—a question that was first raised during the early Modern period. Although the painting is flat and rather two dimensional is conveys a strong erotic connection. Klimt painted many compelling portraits which combined three dimensional portraiture with two dimensional decorative elements. He was also known for some graphic, erotic drawings.
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Sculpture: Realist and Expressive
JEAN-BAPTISTE CARPEAUX, Ugolino and His Children, 1865–1867. Marble, 6’ 5” high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation, Inc. and the Charles Ulrich and Josephine Bay Foundation, Inc., gifts, 1967).
While art focused less on reality, sculpture like this one was based on Realist principles and an interest by the sculptor in Renaissance and Baroque sculpture. Carpeaux won the Prix du Rome and spent eight years in Italy studying sculpture there. In this work you can see how his observation of ancient, Renaissance, and Baroque sculpture informs his work. Here he depicts a scene from Dante’s Inferno in which the central figure, Ugolino and his four sons have been shut up in a tower to starve. If any of you are familiar with the Hellenistic sculpture Laocoon, you will immediately see Carpeaux’s influences.
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Above: Ancient Greek sculpture called the Laocoön Group unearthed in 1506
Right: Carpeaux’s Ugolino and his Children
AUGUSTE RODIN, Walking Man, 1905. Bronze, 6’ 11 ¾” high. Musee d’Orsay, Paris
St. John the Baptist Preaching
Auguste Rodin did for sculpture what the Modernist painters had done for art. While still retaining a Realist approach, Rodin’s aim was for the viewer to sense the raw power and energy of his figures as if they were in motion and also for the viewer to see the sculptor’s process. He was concerned about the effect of light on his work. He was more of a modeler than a carver and you can see the variety of texture that he captured with his sensitive fingers. He often asked models to move around rather than to stand still so he could capture that sense of muscles in motion. This work is a preliminary study for a statue entitled St. John the Baptist Preaching. He captured a transitory moment of a figure in motion which was a very modern approach.
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AUGUSTE RODIN, The Gates of Hell, 1880–1900. Posthumous bronze cast, 20’ 10” X 13’ 1”. Musée Rodin, Paris
These gates which are over 20 feet tall took Rodin two decades to complete. The Gates of Hell are based on the stories of Dante’s Inferno, and on Baudelaire’s Fleurs de mal, (Flowers of Evil). These doors were commissioned for the Museum of Decorative Art in Paris but the museum was never built and this was cast after Rodin’s death. Rodin was inspired by Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise which Rodin saw, and also by Delacroix’s Death of Sardanapalus and Michelangelo’s Last Judgement. But Rodin’s work is more freeform with the bodies of his figures moving fluidly in non-traditional poses, in and out of undefined space. The fact that this gate depicts the nightmarish underworld of Hell allies it to the work of the Symbolists. At the top center of the gate is Rodin’s most well known work, called the Thinker. One of the castings of this piece, more well known than the Gates, is in San Francisco’s Legion Of Honor museum in the courtyard.
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Camille Claudel The Waltz, 1895. Bronze 1’ 4-7/8” high. Private collection, Paris
Camille Claudel is a rare example of a famous female sculptor from the late 19th century. She was a pupil, model, and eventually Rodin’s lover. She had an enormous amount of pressure upon her because she depended on Rodin’s patronage since it was so hard for a woman to succeed, especially as a sculptor. She produced large scale bold works for the public and small scale works for private consumption like this one which is comparable to Klimt’s Kiss. It was extremely rare for a woman to portray a male nude and the sweeping movement of this work marks Claudel as a forceful and exceptional sculptor. Unfortunately, after breaking off with Rodin, Claudel struggled. Her father was supportive of her artistic ambitions but her mother and brother were not. After her father’s death her brother had Camille committed to an institution after an apparent emotional breakdown. She spent the remainder of her life in the asylum even though her doctors said she could be released. Camille wrote to her brother in 1935: “I live in a world that is so curious, so strange … Of the dream which was my life, this is the nightmare.”
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The Arts & Crafts Movement/Art Nouveau
Left: William Morris
Above: Jane Morris
The Arts and Crafts movement in England was shaped in part by the critic John Ruskin who condemned the growing abstract nature of art, taking aim at Whistler particularly. His conservativism had a positive effect on a growing trend against mechanization and machine made objects. Many artists took up the movement from an aesthetic perspective and others from a political perspective espousing socialism and condemning the exploitation of laborers in factories. William Morris despised machine made goods which he felt were inferior and began a company dedicated to the principles of handmade Arts and Crafts. His company was very successful.
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A sampling of distinctive William Morris prints (1875 right, 1876, left) . Many Morris prints are still in use today in interior decorating and fabric design.
Morris and his company created furniture, wallpaper, textiles, tiles, books, rugs, stained glass and pottery. Even today, Morris designed wallpaper and textiles are still in use, and furniture and other objects from the Arts and Crafts period are highly sought after.
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WILLIAM MORRIS, Green Dining Room, South Kensington Museum (now Victoria & Albert Museum), London, England, 1867
This room represents a commission received by Morris to decorate the Green dining room at London’s South Kensington Museum, now the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He designed the wallpaper, which features designs based on floral forms, as well as the ceiling panels, doors, paneling and lighting. Although this room with its mix of patterns would be unusual in a modern house or apartment, many decorators still use the designs of William Morris for wall paper and upholstery and other design applications.
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CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH and MARGARET MACDONALD MACKINTOSH, reconstruction (1992–1995) of Ladies’ Luncheon Room, Ingram Street Tea Room, Glasgow, Scotland, 1900–1912. Glasgow Museum, Glasgow.
The popularity of hand made arts and crafts took off in England, America, and Germany. There were other manifestations of this design aesthetic in other parts of Europe as well, most notably Vienna, Austria. This room is by the Scots designer team of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret MacDonald. The designed a number of tea rooms which featured functional, but also beautifully designed glass windows, chairs, large decorative panels that focus on geometric and rhythmic design and pattern.
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VICTOR HORTA, staircase in the Van Eetvelde House, Brussels, Belgium, 1892–1893.
Another example is by the Belgian designer Victor Horta who incorporates the swirling lines and decorative patterns of Art Nouveau as a cohesive decorative scheme in stairwell in Belgium. The decorative elements feature entwining plant and floral themes on the railings, the glass dome and the fabric panels of the screens. This incorporates the aesthetic ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement which inspired Art Nouveau. Taking its name from a shop in Paris, Art Nouveau spread to France, Belgium, Holland, England and the United States. In Germany and Austria it was called Jugendstil, Modernisimo in Spain and Stile Floreale in Italy. All the decorative forms were stylized and based on natural floral shapes.
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LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY,, water lily lamp, 1904-1915
The Tiffany lamp is an example of a household item that utilizes the Art Nouveau aesthetic by applying floral forms onto glass. In addition to being inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau was also inspired by Japanese print designs, as well as the paintings of Van Gogh, Gauguin, and the Symbolists.
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ANTONIO GAUDI, Casa Milá, Barcelona, 1907
The most expressive use of the Art Nouveau aesthetic in architecture was achieved by Antonio Gaudi, a Spanish architect. His buildings are like no other and follow the curves and rounded edges found in nature. Gaudi believed that his buildings were living entities and as such he wanted them to pulsate with natural forms. The windows and balconies suggest caves, and the supports suggest tree branches, making the building look more like sculpture than architecture.
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ALEXANDRE-GUSTAVE EIFFEL, Eiffel Tower, Paris, France, 1889
New technology that was developed in the late nineteenth century changed the way people built structures. The building of cast iron bridges in Western Europe allowed for the expansion of railroad lines. The Realist influence in architecture encouraged the builder to allow the material of the building itself be seen or actually be central to the design of the structure. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel had these things in mind when he built the Eiffel Tower in 1889 for an exhibition that was to be held in Paris. The tower extend 984 feet into the air and for awhile it was the tallest building in the world. The iron armature allowed it to be strong, tall and fireproof. Eiffel also designed the interior armature of the Statue of Liberty created by Frederic Bartholdi, which was a gift from France in 1886 on the occasion of the centenary of the American Revolution. Although the Eiffel tower was originally reviled by many in France it has become the iconic symbol of Paris. It’s construction inspired other architects to build taller, studier buildings and also led to the development of the skyscraper.
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Term paper Group A due Sunday, November 25 @ 5:00 p.m. via TURNITIN. No email or late submissions will be accepted.
Please note: there is no class on Nov. 12th or Nov. 19
Group B will be announced on Nov. 25.
To find out what group you are in check the FAQ book, watch the slide show on Nov. 5, or check your participant profile. Please don't email me, group information is easy to find and available in three places.
INSTRUCTIONS: write a one-page double spaced 12 point type paper. Submit your paper to TURNITIN before the deadline. Worth 100 points, so write a well editing and convincing paper.
PROMPTS: Watch at least two of the four videos in the Nov 5th section of iLearn (and use the textbook and slides shows as reference material. Choose only ONE of the following topics: (on next slide)
- Compare and contrast Renoir's Moulin de la Galette against Toulouse Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge. Your paper should have a strong thesis statement. Compare technique, composition, subject matter, and the intent of the artist in each case. State the similarities but also BE SURE TO STATE THE CONTRASTS.
- Write an in-depth analysis of Manet's Bar at the Folies Bergère including the technique and intent of the artist, and the subject matter. Concentrate on all the points made in the video, the textbook and the slide show. Compare the still life at the bar with the still life in Renoir's Moulin de la Galette. Also compare the kind of crowd and the atmosphere in the two paintings. What was Renoir's intent? What was Manet's intent? Your paper should have a strong thesis statement.
- Compare Gustave Caillebotte's Rainy Day Paris with Renoir's Moulin de la Galette. Specifically respond to how these paintings address life in Paris in the 1870s. How does the broad boulevard in Caillebotte's painting apply to the fact that Paris had been renovated? How does the crowd in the Montmartre dance hall Moulin de la Galette compare to the people in Caillebotte's painting? Why are they both Impressionist painters when Caillebotte's work is so much more precise in terms of brushstrokes as compared to Renoir's? Answer these questions in a specific and clear way. Your paper should have a clear thesis statement.
QUIZ 3 overview:
some new questions that multiple students got wrong….
and some not so new repeats….
The odd cropping of this painting by Degas demonstrates the influence of _______________ on his work.
The artist who painted this?
The subject of this painting is?
In part II of the Impressionism slide show we had an entire section devoted to the “spaces of femininity”.
What did we discuss and how does this painting by Berthe Morisot represent that discussion?
These two images pertain to questions on Quiz 2, the Midterm, and Quiz 3. We discussed them extensively in class more than once.
The image on the left? NEOCLASSICAL, INSPIRED BY EXCAVATION AT POMPEI
The image on the right? ROMANTIC, ORIENTALIST
