Symbolism
14 posts
The Riders of the Sidhe
Painting · John Duncan
John Duncan's The Riders of the Sidhe (1911) is a central work of the Celtic Revival, the fairy host of Irish and Scottish myth riding in procession.Crosses Symbolism × Painting × Celtic Mythology, a
The Questioner of the Sphinx
Painting · Elihu Vedder
Vedder's The Questioner of the Sphinx (1863) is a key American Symbolist work, a lone figure pressing his ear to the lips of the half-buried Egyptian sphinx for an answer that will not come.Crosses Sy
The Cyclops
Oil on panel · Odilon Redon
Odilon Redon painted The Cyclops around 1914. The one-eyed giant Polyphemus rises from behind a hill of flowers, his single eye fixed on the small sleeping figure of the nymph Galatea below him. In Re
The Sin
Oil on canvas · Franz von Stuck
Franz von Stuck's Die Sünde (The Sin), first shown in Munich in 1893, is among the defining images of fin-de-siecle Symbolism. A nude woman emerges from near-black shadow, a massive serpent coiled aro
Oedipus and the Sphinx
Oil on canvas · Gustave Moreau
Gustave Moreau exhibited Oedipus and the Sphinx at the Paris Salon of 1864, and it made his reputation. The painting fixes the moment from Greek myth when Oedipus confronts the Sphinx outside Thebes,
The Lady of Shalott
Painting (oil on canvas) · John William Waterhouse
Painted in 1888, Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott illustrates the climactic stanza of Tennyson's 1832 poem: the Lady, having looked directly at Lancelot in the mirror and broken the curse, leaves her
The Scream
Painting (oil, tempera and pastel on cardboard) · Edvard Munch
Painted in 1893, The Scream is the defining image of European proto-expressionism and one of the most reproduced artifacts in cultural history. A figure on a bridge holds its head and emits a wordless
Pornokratès
Etching (heliogravure) · Félicien Rops
Completed in 1878, Pornokratès, also titled Lady with Pig, is the canonical work of Belgian decadence and Félicien Rops's most reproduced image. A nude woman walks blindfolded across a stone parapet,
Death and Life
Painting (oil on canvas) · Gustav Klimt
Klimt began Death and Life in 1908 and completed it around 1915. A robed figure of Death stands at the left side of the canvas, watching a sleeping cluster of human bodies, lovers, mothers, children,
The Apparition
Watercolor · Gustave Moreau
Completed in 1876, Moreau's The Apparition is the central image of French Haute Symbolism and the most famous of the artist's many Salomé works. Salomé stands centre, jeweled and tense, while the dise
Hope
Painting (oil on canvas) · George Frederic Watts
Completed in 1886, Watts's Hope is the great late-Victorian allegory and one of the most reproduced images of the nineteenth century. A blindfolded woman sits crouched on a globe, bent over a lyre wit
I Lock My Door Upon Myself
Painting (oil on canvas) · Fernand Khnopff
Painted in 1891, I Lock My Door Upon Myself is the defining canvas of Belgian Symbolism and one of the foundational images of late nineteenth-century European decadence. The title is borrowed verbatim
The Isle of the Dead
Painting (oil on canvas) · Arnold Böcklin
Böcklin painted five versions of this image between 1880 and 1886. The repetition is the first thing to notice. He did not work on the picture, sell it, and move on; he made it again, then again, then
Cassandra
Painting · Evelyn De Morgan
Geef mij iets te geloven Ze roepen: "Cassandra, Cassandra, blijf hier" Zij had er alles voor over Ze weten: Cassandra had alles gezien Liefde is een werkwoord, maar werken doet het niet Je weet p
