WHAT'S SYMBOLISM? |
SYMBOLISM is an art direction, which is reflected in fine art, literature and music. It appeared in 1870 and 1880s in France, and later spread to Belgium, Norway and the Russian Empire. It reached its peak of popularity at the turn of the twentieth century. Symbolism characteristics include sadness, introspection, and allusion or as if the author or a painter has come to a quiet desperation, but was too shy to talk about these feelings, so he/she/they painted them. To understand the essence of style, it is necessary to recall a well-known fictional character - for example, the devil. Everyone knows who he is and what it represents. The demon is associated with fears, hell and any type of a demonic deity. It's a character that exists in the collective memory and causes a set of negative emotions. In many ways, the symbolism overlaps with modernity. The fundamental stance in Symbolism is that it has clear rules and a distinct feature vs. Modernism. Modernism is just a broad concept. With Modernism, there was a drive to see, the Symbolism was wrapped around the notion of feeling. Without the doubt Symbolism has more metaphors and symbolism as its foundation to represent a feeling or an event in an artwork. From what I have read, this style has developed using the collective knowledge over the entire history of a mankind based on recognized and accepted symbols. For example, a halo on an icon is a symbol of holiness; a dove is a symbol of peace. I believe Leon Trotsky said “The desire to forget, to be beyond good and evil.”
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RUSSIAN SYMBOLISM |
Symbolism in Russia only lasted for nine years, after which the movement had begun to decline. Futurism and Acmeism ceased the moment of the early 20th century. From what I have read I noticed that there is a strong drive not to be attached to the preceding. It feels as if for a short time, the art movement went back into the Renaissance style. Angels in Byzantine, Gothic, and early Renaissance art represented messengers. Symbolism movement was very important period and has affected personally because growing up in Russia, most of the literature I read and studied in school was from 18th through 20th centuries. Russia in 19th and 20th centuries was “locked” in a revolution of diversity of artistic thinking, perception of art as a way of knowledge, sharpening of religious and philosophical perspectives. The biggest change in the Russian art occurred within the philosophy and approach of Russian artists towards Russian art itself. If prior to mid-19th century after Napoleonic war, Russian artists were admiring foreign art styles, Russian artists slowly moved towards developing Russian art and capitalized on the rise of a Russian national spirit and genre painting. With Tsar Alexander’s II succession to the throne fter his father’s death in 1955, internal political changes swept the Russian Empire: for example, serfs gained freedom. Tsar Alexander II was known as Alexander the Liberator. Russian symbolism was intertwined with Russian literature, painting and music. Since I was raised on reading 18th and 19th century Russian literature, I have found the painting by Mikhael Vrubel the Seated Demon to be fascinating and it sparked my curiosity towards my quest finding any connections between Vrubel and Russian poet, Mikhail Lermontov. The poem Demon starts with “A Demon, soul of all the banished, sadly above the sinful world floated, and thoughts of days now vanished before him crowingly unfurled...”
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Mikhael Vrubel
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WHEN a viewer looks the Demon, the Demon in the painting the Seated Demon in the Garden is posed like a boulder, and his figure, as if it is a continuation of the rock. His hands were helplessly exhausted in their gesture; they were posed as if they were compressed and uneasy. The Demon’s big eyes expressed longing. ArtinRussia website describes the painting as “He appears passive and introverted yet proud, solitary, and sensitive. He is the antithesis of the feminine, yet possesses feminine attributes in the long hair, soft face, and pouty mouth. “I’d like to push an envelope and state that in my opinion the hero wants to overcome internal doubt, find the strength to fight evil; Vrubel’s Demon expresses only the hopelessness, disappointment, frustration, fatigue, and a “man” with a broken will. In this picture, there is a tendency to instrumentality. That is mirrored across the Symbolism movement. Just like in Hugo Simberg’s painting Wounded Angel, we see the same somber theme it resembles a frieze designed for wall decoration. The painting of the Demon Vrubel portrays the Demon as an uncertain and unsolved being, and can be interpreted in different interpretations of the infinite. The main focus in this painting is the actual act of Vrubel’s quest to express symbolic imagery and its plastic expression in painting to convey the idea of a daring challenge to the world and rush the person to freedom.
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VRUBEL'S DEMON in his own words, the spirit is not so much suffering and sad as commanding majestic. In Lermontov way it attracts primarily thirst for freedom, contempt for the commonplace, majestic pride. In 1890, Vrubel finishes painting the Seated Demon. This painting submerses me into looking into the world through eyes that are aimed at an internal focus, deep longing, and a high compassion. It seems that on his lips froze Hamlet's question: "To be, or not to be?" It seems that he has absorbed all the complex, painful conflicts of the time, pain and suffering of humanity. This painting shows off pure Vrubel’s aesthetics. The painting is molded "color mosaic," as if there are separate from each other colorful planes; this painting impressed me even more when I looked at the painting at the greater depth. Its outstanding artistry and craftsmanship captivates the viewer longer he or she studies it. This painting has projected a feeling of pity yet the Demon is on top of the mountain and not burning in hell as it is portrayed in common literature and art. The decorative patterns and the beautiful rough "mosaic" lay like Cezanne’s composition that surrounds Demon in full sonorous burning color scheme. The Symbolist era accentuated in life Vrubel as Block described it as a "stamp madness and rock" - Demon's obsession.
VRUBEL WAS a lifelong artist pursues master beckons indefinable appearance, makes a viewer return to him again and again, to elect new materials and techniques for their implementation. The demon has this shear feeling that retribution is inevitable - it realizes a terrible disease, the child's death, madness, and death.
VRUBEL WAS a lifelong artist pursues master beckons indefinable appearance, makes a viewer return to him again and again, to elect new materials and techniques for their implementation. The demon has this shear feeling that retribution is inevitable - it realizes a terrible disease, the child's death, madness, and death.
Symbolism Art Movement in Finnish art |
FINNISH SYMBOLISM movement was largely inspired by the Finnish Freedom movement that lasted from mid 19th century well into 20th. Even though after the declaration of independence from the Russian empire, Finnish art and culture continues to develop. The Wounded Angel is a national treasure.
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HUGO SIMBERG
WOUNDED ANGEL
YEAR: 1903 TYPE: OIL DIMENSIONS: 127 CM × 154 CM (50 IN × 61 IN) LOCATION: ATENEUM, HELSINKI |
UNLIKE VRUBEL'S Seated Demon in a Garden, Hugo Simberg’s painting Wounded Angel played a significant role in the recognition of it as a significant phenomenon in the Finnish painting. After suffering a serious nervous breakdown in autumn of 1902 and a recovery in spring of 1903, Hugo Simberg painted Wounded Angel almost immediately after leaving a hospital. The composition of the Wounded Angel is simple: the road in the foreground, the shore, the water and the opposite shore and horizontal elements. The boys take almost the entire height of the picture, which gives the figure of an angel a focal point.
MOST OF SIMBERG'S works have a melancholic atmosphere. He as a realist painter but he is well known for Symbolism paintings. The painting Wounded Angel depicts two teenage boys carrying Angel with bandaged eyes and a bleeding wing on the stretcher. One of the boys gazes directly at the viewer with somewhat mysterious look in his eyes. It’s very unclear what the boy is thinking or feeling. I am thinking that the boy felt an unemotional sympathy towards Angel. Landscape is taken from a park in Helsinki, which still exists. In the autumn, the landscape in Finland is harsh and sad just like in the painting therefore the color palette of the picture is muted. It’s near a quiet valley near the water. The background of this sad procession is a quiet valley near the water. The base of the painting is a dirty road. Along the road grow white flowers that resemble those in the hands of an angel holding. In the middle of the picture - a marshy flood plain crossed by a narrow creek. Background picture of the water and empty the opposite shore. At the top there is a thin strip of sky. |
A LIGHT FINESSE angel sits on the stretcher hunched and his head bowed, holding hands on the edge of the stretcher. Her long white dress touches the ground as she is being carried away on a stretcher. Her feet are bare. In her right hand she holds a small bouquet of flowers that a viewer barely notices. Her eyes closed with white kerchief that is wrapped around her head. The picture does not show what happened to the girl angel. Upon closer inspection a viewer notices that the left wing of the angel at the bottom is slightly torn. Bright white wing slightly stained with blood.
THE OVERALL FEELING of the painting is peaceful yet melancholic. Hugo Simberg never disclosed what the painting was about. Does it represent the earthly start, helping the spirit, and the spirit, immersed in the Earth's beginning? If a viewer analyzes the boys, both boys are wearing dark clothes probably made out of a cheap material. It is significant because it binds the notion that expression of the boy looking at the viewer and the clothes to represent the innocence of childhood. Life and ideals mixed with the proximity of death and the temporary nature of living things. Dark suits boys can also be understood as a symbol of death. One of the boys turned to the audience, letting them know that the themes of life and death are of direct relevance to them. Taking the events that led to the painting maybe the artist felt as if he was returning to life after a long illness. One fascinating fact about the painting Hugo Simberg refused to give any interpretation of his masterpiece. Another interesting theory was proposed in the book European Directors and Their Films: Essays on Cinema by Bert Cardullo, Cardullo states that Simberg primarily painting pictures of death and devils that are ever-present characters in Finnish folklore in as the author describes “in an ironically humorous manner.”
IN MY HUMBLE opinion and I am not an art historian (I did study art history along with the studio art), I am convinced beyond any doubt that this painting IS NOT about Simberg's recovery, it is a political statement a call for an independence of Finland. He painted this painting three times. His health reason makes no sense. He painted this art piece during the era when the Finnish people were looking for their personal I - their identity, their freedom, their home under their flag. They were under Swedish and Russian empires. The Finns are not Russians and they are not Swedish. They have their own culture, their own language and their own dialects. The angel in the painting represents Finland itself and the boys are in their rebellious stage of their lives where they make choices who they want to be: follow parents'footsteps or break free and be themselves. One of the boys looks directly at the viewer. Again, I look at the boy. He has this look "I am an introvert, but watch what I will do next" The factory in the back of the painting represents an industrialization and the river represents the export and import. If a country can declare its independence not only politically but also having an ability to generate their own export, they are economically free from Sweden and Russia. I am not sure why I haven't seen that idea explored in anything I have come across. It is very obvious. The angel's dress touches the ground. That little detail has and holds a profound statement. The angel is bounded to the land, it's their home. Also, the angel has blood seeping through her bandages. This painting was done 5 years shy 100 year anniversary from the Finnish war involving multiple countries: Sweden, Russia, France, Denmark, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. Swedes lost the war to the Russians and the aftermath was devastating. By 1808, the Russian army was deep in Finland and Finland became part of Russian empire. Nothing else makes more sense than the blood element representing a recovery from a war this angel lost. Also, if we look closer to the angel's feet. Even though they are suspended in the air, in the painting they seems to be touching the ground. I have no doubt in my mind that this is a political art piece. 15 years after the painting was completed, Finland declares its independence. Symbolism is all about the context.
HUGO SIMBERG was a part of the Golden Age of Finnish Art that prospered around late 19th and early 20th centuries. If at the beginning of 19th century Finland did not have its own artistic culture: no museums, no art schools, and a complete absence of exhibitions, by late 1800s Finnish Art had become an important and significant part of Finnish history and national identity and culture to Finnish people. Golden Age of Finnish Art was fueled by the political climate in addition to growing drive to gain an independence from Russian empire.
THE OVERALL FEELING of the painting is peaceful yet melancholic. Hugo Simberg never disclosed what the painting was about. Does it represent the earthly start, helping the spirit, and the spirit, immersed in the Earth's beginning? If a viewer analyzes the boys, both boys are wearing dark clothes probably made out of a cheap material. It is significant because it binds the notion that expression of the boy looking at the viewer and the clothes to represent the innocence of childhood. Life and ideals mixed with the proximity of death and the temporary nature of living things. Dark suits boys can also be understood as a symbol of death. One of the boys turned to the audience, letting them know that the themes of life and death are of direct relevance to them. Taking the events that led to the painting maybe the artist felt as if he was returning to life after a long illness. One fascinating fact about the painting Hugo Simberg refused to give any interpretation of his masterpiece. Another interesting theory was proposed in the book European Directors and Their Films: Essays on Cinema by Bert Cardullo, Cardullo states that Simberg primarily painting pictures of death and devils that are ever-present characters in Finnish folklore in as the author describes “in an ironically humorous manner.”
IN MY HUMBLE opinion and I am not an art historian (I did study art history along with the studio art), I am convinced beyond any doubt that this painting IS NOT about Simberg's recovery, it is a political statement a call for an independence of Finland. He painted this painting three times. His health reason makes no sense. He painted this art piece during the era when the Finnish people were looking for their personal I - their identity, their freedom, their home under their flag. They were under Swedish and Russian empires. The Finns are not Russians and they are not Swedish. They have their own culture, their own language and their own dialects. The angel in the painting represents Finland itself and the boys are in their rebellious stage of their lives where they make choices who they want to be: follow parents'footsteps or break free and be themselves. One of the boys looks directly at the viewer. Again, I look at the boy. He has this look "I am an introvert, but watch what I will do next" The factory in the back of the painting represents an industrialization and the river represents the export and import. If a country can declare its independence not only politically but also having an ability to generate their own export, they are economically free from Sweden and Russia. I am not sure why I haven't seen that idea explored in anything I have come across. It is very obvious. The angel's dress touches the ground. That little detail has and holds a profound statement. The angel is bounded to the land, it's their home. Also, the angel has blood seeping through her bandages. This painting was done 5 years shy 100 year anniversary from the Finnish war involving multiple countries: Sweden, Russia, France, Denmark, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. Swedes lost the war to the Russians and the aftermath was devastating. By 1808, the Russian army was deep in Finland and Finland became part of Russian empire. Nothing else makes more sense than the blood element representing a recovery from a war this angel lost. Also, if we look closer to the angel's feet. Even though they are suspended in the air, in the painting they seems to be touching the ground. I have no doubt in my mind that this is a political art piece. 15 years after the painting was completed, Finland declares its independence. Symbolism is all about the context.
HUGO SIMBERG was a part of the Golden Age of Finnish Art that prospered around late 19th and early 20th centuries. If at the beginning of 19th century Finland did not have its own artistic culture: no museums, no art schools, and a complete absence of exhibitions, by late 1800s Finnish Art had become an important and significant part of Finnish history and national identity and culture to Finnish people. Golden Age of Finnish Art was fueled by the political climate in addition to growing drive to gain an independence from Russian empire.
SYMBOLISM MOVEMENT was integrated within art, literature and music. It is driven by literature or/and then a political climate. Symbolism is complex and divisive phenomenon in the artistic culture of the end of 19th and turn of the 20th centuries. In it expressed a forewarning and expectation of great social historical change and at the same time - fear of them, the theme of self-indulgence, the adoption of the revolution and religious and mystical aspirations. Influence of Symbolism played out and expanded into various artistic movements of the 20th century: expressionism, surrealism, futurism and many others. His aesthetic doctrine remained part of history; but art practice major symbolist poets became a living legacy to the art of the 20th century.
THE ESSENCE of the symbolism deeper than just the use of symbols - is just one of the attributes. Symbolism is not reducible to the character, and the character cannot they come up with. Symbolism is a vision of the world through the prism of matches. I analyzed two paintings Mikhael Vrubel’s Seated Demon in a Garden and Hugo Simberg’s Wounded Angel. I picked those two paintings because the main characters are Demon and Angel. They both carry almost the same feeling: sadness, introspection, and allusion.
THE ESSENCE of the symbolism deeper than just the use of symbols - is just one of the attributes. Symbolism is not reducible to the character, and the character cannot they come up with. Symbolism is a vision of the world through the prism of matches. I analyzed two paintings Mikhael Vrubel’s Seated Demon in a Garden and Hugo Simberg’s Wounded Angel. I picked those two paintings because the main characters are Demon and Angel. They both carry almost the same feeling: sadness, introspection, and allusion.
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