II. Hidden Reality
In a reaction to the Rationalist view of the world prevailing at the end of the 19th century and the hegemony of the natural sciences, a way of thinking evolved that began questioning visible reality and the power of reason. In a search for deeper truths, there was a turn to the supernatural and the mysterious.
In art, this meant a departure from Realism and Naturalism, which were dedicated to faithful depictions of reality while eschewing any form of stylisation. Instead there was an increasing interest in the ‘other’: in the unconscious, the uncanny and the instinctual, in dreams and hypnosis, maladies of body and soul, spirituality and the esoteric as well as myths and legends. From their exploration of such subjects, artists began creating imagery that opposed reality as normally experienced, and whose diverse styles and forms of expression are compiled under the term ‘Symbolism’.
Many works possessed a symbolic character, employing allegorical figures, for example, in seeking a higher meaning beyond the content being depicted. Ernest Biéler personified autumn in such a manner in Les feuilles mortes (Dead Leaves), in the form of stylised female figures. Arnold Böcklin’s ominous-looking scenes populated by hybrid creatures can be read as allegories of war or the struggle between the sexes. Ferdinand Hodler, on the other hand, renounced such mythological references in favour of creating figures that, in the way they pose and the use of repetition, point beyond themselves, becoming timeless symbols of transience and death.