十九世紀象徵藝術的言說世界與批判意識－－透視藝術風格的另一種途徑

The Narrative Discourse and the Critical Consciousness of Symbolist Art--A Different way to Define Art Style

形象語言是人類固有的表達形式，是意義系統中的一環，人們利用形象的相似性進行指示和比擬；對不可見或不可理解的事物假借形象作隱喻和象徵。在先民的洞穴文化中，或在中古的宗教文物中，乃至歷來文學藝術中廣為衍用的隱喻、象徵記號，均說明了形象象徵在人類言語系統中（註1）有其悠久的歷史與普遍性。在這種以象徵方式敘說感情思想的廣泛使用下，我們應該如何界定象徵主義在藝術史中的定位？在進入問題分析其有必要加以說明。西方藝術中的象徵主義是指十九世紀八十年代至世紀末的一段時間，在西歐的英、法、比、德、奧、義諸地發展的一種藝術風格。這個尺度若放寬一點，可以延伸到第一次歐戰爆發以前的三十年，而幅員之廣也可以擴展到北歐、俄國、美國。在英國發展得較早，接著在法國，比利時、德、奧等地蔓延開來，待進入二十世紀以後，先被如火如荼的現代主義所掩蓋，繼而在第一次世界大戰中完全埋葬，要等到第二次歐戰後才重新引起藝術界的注意，六十年代之後廣為學者們引用，並逐漸取代'後印象主義'一詞，成為解說現代藝術湧現以前的西方藝術潮流更為恰當的名詞（註2）。

The aim of this paper is to define the symbolist art at the end of nineteenth century through its subject matter and critical consciousness. The methodology used deffers from the traditional analysis which are based essentially upon the formal structures. By tracing the origins of symbolist art in the early forms of human expression (language, movement) as, for example, E. Cassirer and S. Langer have done in their works, we point out that the overwhelming domination of the positivism and the increasing emphasis on sciences and their impact on impressionism constitute the main causes of the plurality and the irrationalism found in art representations at the end of the nineteenth century. A further analysis will show how the reaction against the increasing materialism that predominated in the urban centers transform the art movement toward spiritual idealism as well as criticism. At the second part of the paper, we proceed to analyze through selected art works three features of their narrative contents: the fantastic microcosm, whereby art serves as a window open toward the spirit or nature, the synthetic idealism, which focuses on representation as communion of the senses, and the criticism of humanity, which focuses on the transience and impermanence of earthly desires. All these features represent ways to reach a profound dimension of interiority in art.