Symbolism was an art movement in response to Realism and Impressionism. Poets, musicians, artists, and writers all used Symbolism to express meaning in an indirect manner. Symbolist painters wanted their pictures to depict a meaning beyond just the figures they drew.
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through metaphorical images and language mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realism. It was used mainly as a way for Europeans to express circumstances such as the black plague in artistic forms, like angels and demons, and even the symbolism of death.
