ABSTRACT
Symbolist critics considered Naturalism, Impressionism, and Realism superficial and called for an art that expressed ideas and feelings, not appearances. Thus, Symbolist art is distinguished by an artist’s urge to convey a transcendent truth, an idea. The first and most famous declaration of the Symbolist agenda was published by the art critic Jean Moréas in the 18 September 1886 issue of the popular Parisian newspaper Le Figaro. Moréas asserted that Symbolists were “enemies of instruction, of proclamation, of false sensitivity, and of objective description …” (Moréas 1886: 2). In other words, Symbolists produced honest, subjective works of art whose purpose was not to educate or describe, but to express ideas truthfully. The poet Stéphane Mallarmé asserted that “To name an object is to suppress three quarters of the enjoyment of the poem, which is made to be discovered little by little: to suggest it, that is the dream. It is the perfect usage of this mystery which constitutes the symbol…” (Michaud 1961: 774).
