Russian Symbolism
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2008-07-06T13:20:36Z
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not sure what this painting is supposed to illustrate
[[Image:Mikhail Nesterov 001.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Mikhail Nesterov]]'s painting ''The Vision of the Youth Bartholomew'' (1890) is often considered to mark the inauguration of the Russian Symbolist movement.]]
'''Russian Symbolism''' was an intellectual and [[artistic movement]] predominant at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It represented the Russian branch of the [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolist movement]] in European art, and was mostly known for its contributions to Russian poetry.
==Russian Symbolism in Literature==
Primary influences on the movement were the [[irrationalism|irrationalistic]] and [[mysticism|mystical]] poetry and philosophy of [[Fyodor Tyutchev]] and [[Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)|Vladimir Solovyov]] the novels of [[Dostoevsky]], the operas of [[Richard Wagner]], the philosophy of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], French [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolist]] and [[Decadence|Decadent]] poets (such as [[Stéphane Mallarmé]], [[Paul Verlaine]] and [[Charles Baudelaire]]), and the dramas of [[Henrik Ibsen]].
The movement was inaugurated by Nikolai Minsky's article ''The Ancient Debate'' (1884) and [[Dmitry Merezhkovsky]]'s book ''On the Causes of the Decline and on the New Trends in Contemporary Russian Literature'' (1892). Both writers promoted extreme [[individualism]] and deified the act of creation. [[Dmitry Merezhkovsky|Merezhkovsky]] was known for his poetry as well as a series of novels on ''god-men,'' among whom he counted [[Christ]], [[Joan of Arc]], [[Dante]], [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Napoleon]], and (later) [[Hitler]]. His wife, [[Zinaida Gippius]], also a major poet in the early days of the Symbolist movement, opened a salon in [[St Petersburg]], which came to be known as the "headquarters of Russian [[decadence]]".
===The Rise of Symbolism===
[[Image:meyerhold1906.jpg|250px|thumb|[[Vsevolod Meyerhold]] in his production of [[Alexander Blok]]'s ''Puppet Show'' (1906).]]
By the mid-1890s, Russian Symbolism was still mainly a set of theories and had few notable practitioners. [[Alexander Dobrolyubov]] published a book of verse in 1895, just before renouncing lay poetry in favour of wanderings from one monastery to another. Another talented author, [[Ivan Konevskoy]], died at the age of 24. It was not until the new talent of [[Valery Bryusov]] emerged that Symbolist poetry became a major movement in Russian literature. In order to represent Symbolism as a movement of formidable following, Bryusov adopted numerous pen-names and published three volumes of his own verse, entitled ''Russian Symbolists. An Anthology'' (1894-95). Bryusov's mystification proved successful - several young poets were attracted to Symbolism as the latest fashion in Russian letters. In addition to Bryusov, the most popular poets were [[Konstantin Balmont]], who believed in first inspiration and sometimes intentionally left his verse unrevised, and the pessimistic [[Fyodor Sologub]], who referred to himself as the ''bard of death''.
Though the reputations of many of these writers had faded by the mid-twentieth century, the influence of the Symbolist movement was nonetheless profound. This was especially true in the case of [[Innokenty Annensky]], whose definitive collection of verse, ''Cypress Box'', was published posthumously (1909). Sometimes cited as a Slavic counterpart to the ''accursed poets'', Annensky managed to render into Russian the essential intonations of [[Baudelaire]] and [[Verlaine]], while the subtle music, ominous allusions, arcane vocabulary, and the spell of minutely changing colours and odours in his poetry were all his own. His influence on the [[Acmeist poetry|Acmeist]] school of Russian poetry ([[Anna Akhmatova|Akhmatova]], [[Nikolay Gumilyov|Gumilyov]], [[Osip Mandelshtam|Mandelshtam]]) was paramount.
===The Second Generation===
Russian Symbolism really flourished in the first decade of the 20th century. Many new talents began to publish verse written in the Symbolist vein. These writers were especially indebted to the philosopher [[Vladimir Solovyov]]. The scholar [[Vyacheslav Ivanov (poet)|Vyacheslav Ivanov]], whose interests lay in ancient poetry, returned from Italy to establish a ''[[Dionysus|Dionysian]]'' club in St Petersburg. His self-proclaimed principle was to engraft "archaic [[John Milton|Miltonic]] diction" to Russian poetry. [[Maximilian Voloshin]], known best for his poetry about the Russian revolution, opened a poetic salon at his villa in the [[Crimea]]. [[Jurgis Baltrušaitis]], a close friend of [[Alexander Scriabin]] and whose poetry is characterized by mystical philosophy and mesmerizing sounds, was active in Lithuania.
[[Image:Alexandre Benois 004.jpg|thumb|250px|The Russian capital was often pictured by Symbolists as a depressing, nightmarish city.]]
Of the new generation, two young poets, Alexander Blok and Andrei Bely, became the most renowned of the entire Russian Symbolist movement. [[Alexander Blok]] is widely considered to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest Russian poet of the twentieth century. He was often compared with Alexander Pushkin, and the whole [[Silver Age of Russian Poetry]] was sometimes styled the "Age of Blok". His early verse is impeccably musical and rich in sound. Later, he sought to introduce daring rhythmic patterns and uneven beats into his poetry. His mature poems are often based on the conflict between the Platonic vision of ideal beauty and the disappointing reality of foul industrial outskirts. They are often characterized by an idiosyncratic use of color and spelling to express meaning. One of Blok's most famous and controversial poems was "The Twelve," which described the march of twelve Bolshevik soldiers through the streets of revolutionary [[Petrograd]] in pseudo-religious terms.
[[Andrei Bely]] strove to forge a unity of prose, poetry, and music in much of his literature, as evidenced by the title of one of his early works, ''Symphonies in Prose.'' However his fame rests primarily on the post-symbolist works such as celebrated [[modernist]] novel [[Saint Petersburg|Petersburg]] (1911-1913), a philosophical and spiritual work featuring a highly unorthodox narrative style, fleeting allusions and distinctive rhythmic experimentation. [[Vladimir Nabokov]] placed it second in his list of the greatest novels of the twentieth century after [[James Joyce]]'s [[Ulysses (novel)|''Ulysses'']]. Other works of mention include the highly-influential theoretical book of essays entitled ''Symbolism'' (1910) which was instrumental in redefining the goals of the Symbolist movement, and the novel ''Kotik Letaev'' (1914-1916), which traces the first glimpses of consciousness in a new-born baby.
The city of [[St. Petersburg]] itself became one of the major symbols utilized by the second generation of Russian symbolists. Blok's verses on the imperial capital bring to life an [[impressionism|impressionistic picture]] of the ''city of a thousand illusions'' and as a doomed world full of merchants and [[bourgeois]] figures. Various elemental forces (such as sunrises and sunsets, light and darkness, lightning and fire) assumed apocalyptic qualities, serving as portents of a great cataclysmic event that would change the earth and humanity forever. The [[Scythians]] and [[Mongols]] were often found in the works of these poets, serving as symbols of future catastrophic wars. Due to the [[eschatology|eschatological]] tendency inherent in the Russian Symbolist movement, many of them - including Blok, Bely, Bryusov - accepted the [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]] as the next evolutionary step in their nation's history.
===Other Russian Symbolist Prose===
[[Fyodor Sologub]] was the first writer to introduce the morbid, pessimistic elements characteristic of ''[[fin de siècle]]'' literature and philosophy into Russian prose. His most famous novel, ''The Petty Demon'' (1902), was an attempt to create a living portrait of the concept known in Russian as ''[[poshlost']]'' (an idea whose meaning lies somewhere between evil, trashy and banality or [[kitsch]]). His next large prose work, ''A Created Legend'' (a trilogy consisting of ''Drops of Blood,'' ''Queen Ortruda,'' and ''Smoke and Ash''), contained many of the same characteristics but presented a considerably more positive and hopeful view of the world.
[[Valery Bryusov]]'s novel ''[[The Fiery Angel (novel)|The Fiery Angel]]'' is also well known. It tells the story of a 16th-century German scholar and his attempts to win the love of a young woman whose spiritual integrity is seriously undermined by her participation in occult practices and her dealings with unclean forces. The novel served as the basis for [[Sergei Prokofiev]]'s [[opera]] ''[[The Fiery Angel (opera)|The Fiery Angel]]''.
One Russian Symbolist who wrote mainly prose was [[Alexei Remizov]]. Drawing on medieval Russian literature, he grotesquely combined dreams, reality, and pure whimsy in his works .
===The Decline of the Symbolist Movement===
Russian Symbolism had begun to lose its momentum in literature by the second decade of the twentieth century. Its major practitioners frequently conflicted in the pages of the journals ''Vesy'', ''Zolotoe runo'' and ''Pereval''. Others wrestled for control of key printing houses. Meanwhile, many younger poets were drawn to the [[Acmeism|Acmeist]] movement, which distanced itself from excesses of Symbolism. Others joined the ranks of the [[Russian Futurism|Futurists]], an iconoclastic group which sought to recreate art entirely, eschewing all aesthetic conventions.
==Symbolism in the Fine Arts==
[[Image:Kandreiter.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Wassily Kandinsky]]'s emblem of the symbolic Blue Rider (1911).]]
Probably the most important Russian Symbolist painter was [[Mikhail Vrubel]], who achieved fame with a large [[mosaic]]-like canvas ''Seated Demon'' (1890) and went mad while working on the dynamic and sinister ''Demon Downcast'' (1902).
Other Symbolist painters associated with the ''[[Mir iskusstva|World of Art]]'' magazine were [[Victor Borisov-Musatov]], a follower of [[Puvis de Chavannes]]; [[Mikhail Nesterov]], who painted religious subjects from medieval Russian history; [[Mstislav Dobuzhinsky]], with his ''urbanistic [[phantasm]]s'', and [[Nicholas Roerich]], whose paintings have been described as hermetic, or esoteric.
==Symbolism in Music and Theatre==
[[Image:benois-petrushka.jpg|250px|thumb|[[Alexandre Benois]] designed Symbolist sets for [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]]'s ''[[Petrushka]]'' in 1911.]]
The foremost Symbolist composer was [[Alexander Scriabin]] who in his ''First Symphony'' praised art as a kind of religion. ''Le Devin Poem'' (1902-1904) sought to express ''the evolution of the human spirit from [[pantheism]] to unity with the universe''. ''Poème de l'extase'', first given in 1908 in [[New York]], was accompanied by the elaborately selected colour projections on a screen.
In Scriabin's synthetic performances music, poetry, dancing, colours, and scents were used so as to bring about ''supreme, final ecstasy.'' Similar ideas on the ''stage fusion of all arts'' were elaborated by [[Andrey Bely]] and [[Wassily Kandinsky]].
In the field of more traditional theatre, ''[[The Cherry Orchard]]'' and some other later Chekhov's plays, have been described as being steeped in Symbolism. Nevertheless, their first production by [[Constantin Stanislavski]] was as realistic as possible. Stanislavski collaborated with the English [[theatre practitioner]] [[Edward Gordon Craig]] on a significant [[The MAT production of Hamlet|production of ''Hamlet'']] in [[1911]]-[[1912|12]], which experimented with symbolist [[monodrama]] as a basis for its staging. It is [[Meyerhold]]'s production of Blok's ''Puppet Show'' ([[1906]]) that is usually cited as a high point of Symbolist theatre in Russia. Two years later, Stanislavski himself won international acclaim when he staged in the [[Moscow Art Theatre]] ''[[The Blue Bird (play)|The Blue Bird]]'', the latest of [[Maurice Maeterlinck|Maeterlinck]]'s plays.
[[Nikolai Evreinov]] was one of a number of writers who developed a symbolist theory of theatre. Evreinov insisted that everything around us is "theatre" and that nature is full of theatrical conventions: e.g., desert flowers [[mimesis|mimicking]] the stones; mouse feigning death in order to escape cat's claws; complicated dances of birds, etc. Theatre, for Evreinov, is a universal symbol of existence.
{{Russian art movements}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Symbolism, Russian}}
[[Category:Russian art]]
[[Category:Russian literature]]
[[Category:Symbolism (arts)]]
[[Category:Modernist drama, theatre and performance]]
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