Editing Symbolism (movement) (section)

===Philosophy===
[[Schopenhauer's aesthetics]] represented shared concerns with the symbolist programme; they both tended to consider Art as a contemplative refuge from the world of strife and [[Will (philosophy)|will]]. As a result of this desire for an artistic refuge, the symbolists used characteristic themes of [[mysticism]] and otherworldliness, a keen sense of [[death|mortality]], and a sense of the malign power of [[human sexuality|sexuality]], which [[Albert Samain]] termed a "fruit of death upon the tree of life."<ref>''Luxure, fruit de mort à l'arbre de la vie... '', [[Albert Samain]], "Luxure", in the publication ''Au jardin de l'infante'' (1889)</ref> Mallarmé's poem ''Les fenêtres''<ref>Stéphane Mallarmé, [http://cage.ugent.be/~dc/Literature/Mallarme/Mal08.html ''Les fenêtres''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041209140346/http://cage.ugent.be/~dc/Literature/Mallarme/Mal08.html |date=9 December 2004 }}</ref> expresses all of these themes clearly.  A dying man in a hospital bed, seeking escape from the pain and dreariness of his physical surroundings, turns toward his window but then turns away in disgust from

[[File:Félicien Rops - Pornokratès - 1878 (2).jpg|thumb|''[[Pornocrates]]'', by [[Félicien Rops]], etching and [[aquatint]], 1878]]

:''… l'homme à l'âme dure<br />Vautré dans le bonheur, où ses seuls appétits<br />Mangent, et qui s'entête à chercher cette ordure<br />Pour l'offrir à la femme allaitant ses petits, …''

::(… the hard-souled man,<br />Wallowing in happiness, where only his appetites<br />Feed, and who insists on seeking out this filth<br />To offer to the wife suckling his children, …)

and in contrast, he "turns his back on life" (''tourne l’épaule à la vie'') and he exclaims:

:''Je me mire et me vois ange! Et je meurs, et j'aime<br />– Que la vitre soit l'art, soit la mysticité –<br />A renaître, portant mon rêve en diadème,<br />Au ciel antérieur où fleurit la Beauté!''

::(I look at myself and I seem like an angel! and I die, and I love<br />– Whether the mirror might be art, or mysticism –<br />To be reborn, bearing my dream as a crown,<br />Under that former sky where Beauty flourishes!)