{"id":5860,"date":"2015-04-09T08:27:50","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T12:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/?p=5860"},"modified":"2015-04-09T08:27:50","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T12:27:50","slug":"symbolists-and-decadents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/2015\/04\/09\/symbolists-and-decadents\/","title":{"rendered":"Symbolists and Decadents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0040.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-5862 style=\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0040-205x300.jpg\" alt=\"Symbolists and Decadents\" width=\"205\" height=\"300\" align=\"right\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0040-205x300.jpg 205w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0040-699x1024.jpg 699w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0040.jpg 1068w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 205px) 100vw, 205px\" \/><\/a>Many volumes in the Santo Domingo Collection are about fine art, some exploring the limits of social acceptability whereas others recount more commonly seen art.\u00a0 <em>Symbolists and Decadents<\/em> by John Christian gives an interesting and thorough examination of the art movement of symbolism.\u00a0 In the introduction Christian explains symbolism in art, stating \u201cThe term symbolist and decadent art is virtually impossible to define, so different in temperament, scope and achievement were the artists concerned.\u00a0 The only real common denominator was an approach to subject matter, a belief that a picture is neither simply an arrangement of lines and colours, nor a transcript from nature, but that behind a picture lies another order of meaning.\u201d\u00a0 With this definition in mind, he explores several famous artists ranging from Odilon Redon to Paul Gauguin to Pablo Picasso.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5863\" style=\"width: 243px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0041.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5863\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5863\" style=\"margin-right: 5px\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0041-233x300.jpg\" alt=\"Orpheus by Odilon Redon\" width=\"233\" height=\"300\" align=\"left\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0041-233x300.jpg 233w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0041-796x1024.jpg 796w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0041.jpg 1068w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5863\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Orpheus by Odilon Redon<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_5865\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0043.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5865\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5865\" style=\"margin-right: 5px\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0043-300x147.jpg\" alt=\"The Mill by Edward Burne-Jones\" width=\"300\" height=\"147\" align=\"left\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0043-300x147.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0043-1024x502.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/files\/2015\/04\/IMG_0043.jpg 1528w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5865\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mill by Edward Burne-Jones<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Each painting is accompanied by a short paragraph of description and explanation about the artist and why the piece has been included in this collection.\u00a0 Christian does not limit himself to one physical collection but references paintings held in a variety of museums and galleries. \u00a0The explanations are short and easy to read, there is no need to be an art historian yourself to enjoy this book.\u00a0 The extensive introduction places the movement in historical context while highlighting some of the more famous artists involved.\u00a0 <a title=\"Symbolists and decadents\" href=\"http:\/\/id.lib.harvard.edu\/aleph\/014335168\/catalog%20\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Symbolists and Decadents<\/em><\/a> is available in Widener Library\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n<p>For those interested, John Christian is also a renowned Edward Burne-Jones scholar and his book on the artist, <a href=\"http:\/\/id.lib.harvard.edu\/aleph\/013128891\/catalog%20\" target=\"_blank\">Ed<em>ward Burne-Jones : the hidden humorist<\/em><\/a>, is available at the Fine Arts Library.<\/p>\n<p><em>Thanks to Emma Clement, Santo Domingo Library Assistant, for contributing this post.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. Many volumes in the Santo Domingo Collection are about fine art, some exploring the limits of social acceptability whereas others recount more commonly seen art.\u00a0 Symbolists and Decadents by John Christian gives an interesting and thorough examination of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[72741],"tags":[113736,72720],"class_list":["post-5860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-widener-library","tag-julio-mario-santo-domingo","tag-julio-mario-santo-domingo-collection"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5TUly-1ww","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5860"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5872,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860\/revisions\/5872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}