symbolism

decorative arts

• Anatolian cylinder seals
  • 
    In Anatolia: Middle Bronze Age

    The elaborate repertoire of figurative symbolism used for this purpose, together with that found in molded lead figurines, provides clear evidence of the existence of an indigenous Anatolian culture that persisted through the vicissitudes of economic and political change; the same tradition reappears with little alteration in the art of…

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• basketry
  • 
    In basketry

    …system with a circular base representing the sun and a square terrace representing the sky.

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• carpet design
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    In rug and carpet: Individual motifs

    …of the palm tree, a symbol of vitalistic power that was often, if not always, associated with the Moon. Many of the almost uncountable variations that developed through the centuries continued to refer directly to the palm. As early as the 1st millennium bc, however, others derived from the lotus…

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    In rug and carpet: Uses of rugs and carpets

    Design, naturally linked to religious imagery, is characterized by the mihrab, or prayer niche (an imitation of the prayer niche in the wall of a mosque), the apex of which could be pointed toward Mecca. But other religious motifs also appear, such as hanging lamps, water jugs, or “hand prints”…

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• Chinese pottery
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    In pottery: China

    Chinese decoration is usually symbolic and often exploits the double meaning of certain words; for instance, the Chinese word for “bat,” fu, also means “happiness.” Five bats represent the Five Blessings—longevity, wealth, serenity, virtue, and an easy death. Longevity is symbolized by such things as the stork, the pine,…

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    In Chinese pottery: Marks and decoration on Chinese pottery

    Chinese decoration is usually symbolic and often exploits the double meaning of certain words; for instance, the Chinese word for “bat,” fu, also means “happiness.” Five bats represent the Five Blessings—longevity, wealth, serenity, virtue, and an easy death. Longevity is symbolized by such things as the stork, the pine,…

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• folk art motifs
  • 
    In folk art: Content and motifs

    …costume, was ornate and highly symbolic, with such motifs as Adam and Eve, the tree of life, and mating birds considered appropriate. Both weddings and funerals required processional equipment, standards, and special vehicles. In some places there were gifts for the dead, which in China took the form of paper…

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    In folk art: Indonesia

    …offerings and the beautifully stylized symbolic objects woven of palm leaf. Indonesian shadow puppets and printed textiles are world-famous.

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• furniture design
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    In furniture: Imagery and ornamentation

    …Egypt, for example, had a symbolic or magical function. The legs of Sumerian stools are shaped like those of an ox, which was the guardian animal of the city of Ur. Egyptian furniture shows a much wider development of furniture legs based on animal models. Three-footed stools ending in dogs’…

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• heraldry
  • 
    In heraldry

    …display, and regulation of hereditary symbols employed to distinguish individuals, armies, institutions, and corporations. Those symbols, which originated as identification devices on flags and shields, are called armorial bearings. Strictly defined, heraldry denotes that which pertains to the office and duty of a herald; that part of his work dealing…

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• interior design
  • 
    In interior design: Symbolism and style

    There are many historic examples of symbolism in design, but often the symbolism is not a conscious statement so much as a more subtle reflection of style. Religious buildings, especially churches, have until recently been consistently traditional expressions of style or symbolism.…

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• tapestry
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    In tapestry: Middle Ages in Egypt and the Near East

    Recurring motifs related to the ancient Egyptian funerary cult of Osiris and included the grape vine or ivy and the wine amphora. These motifs were considered appropriate to burial robes because of their relevance to revival in a life after death. Other favourite subjects were the…

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• tripod
  • In tripod

    …because it was associated with religious or symbolic rites in the form of an altar, a sacrificial basin, or the most celebrated tripod of all, the seat at Delphi upon which the Pythian priestess sat to deliver the oracles of the god Apollo. Underlying the tripod’s association with such rites…

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literature

• In literature: The word as symbol

  The content of literature is as limitless as the desire of human beings to communicate with one another. The thousands of years, perhaps hundreds of thousands, since the human species first developed speech have seen built up the almost infinite systems of relationships called…

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• In Western literature: Post-Romanticism

  Symbolism, a selective use of words and images to evoke tenuous moods and meanings, is conveyed in the work of Stéphane Mallarmé and Arthur Rimbaud. The advance of French poetry in the middle and later part of the century was an achievement of individuals, based…

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• dramatic literature
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    In dramatic literature: Dramatic structure

    …freedom to the playwright in symbolizing location and duration: as Samuel Johnson observed in his discussion of this freedom in Shakespeare, the spectators always allow the play to manipulate the imagination. It is sufficient for the witches in Macbeth to remark their “heath” with its “fog and filthy air” for…

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• epic
  • 
    In epic: Bases

    …that are realized by three categories of people: priests, warriors, and producers of riches. In conformity with this philosophy, most Indo-European epics have as their central themes interaction among these three principles or functions which are: (1) religion and kingship; (2) physical strength; (3) fecundity, health, riches, beauty, and so…

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• fable, parable, and allegory
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    In allegory

    Another variant is the symbolic allegory, in which a character or material thing is not merely a transparent vehicle for an idea, but rather has a recognizable identity or narrative autonomy apart from the message it conveys. In Dante’s The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–21), for example, the character Virgil…

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    In fable, parable, and allegory: Allegory and myth

    The fate of allegory, in all its many variations, is tied to the development of myth and mythology. Every culture embodies its basic assumptions in stories whose mythic structures reflect the society’s prevailing attitudes toward life. If the attitudes are disengaged from the structure, then the allegorical meaning…

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• novel
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    In novel: Myth, symbolism, significance

    The novelist’s conscious day-to-day preoccupation is the setting down of incident, the delineation of personality, the regulation of exposition, climax, and denouement. The aesthetic value of the work is frequently determined by subliminal forces that seem to operate independently of the writer, investing…

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• Oceanic oral literature
  • In Oceanic literature: The myth

    The symbolic vocabulary, formally identical with that used in public speeches, carries elaborate but acknowledged references. A text may be established on the basis of a single symbol, but, in general, the symbolic pattern is so complex that other cultures have great difficulty in understanding it.…

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• poetry
  • 
    In Dylan Thomas

    …use of Christian myth and symbolism and often sounds a note of formal ritual and incantation in his poems. The re-creation of childhood experience produces a visionary, mystical poetry in which the landscapes of youth and infancy assume the holiness of the first Eden (“Poem in October,” “Fern Hill”); for…

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    In South Asian arts: Śaṅgam literature

    …grow on the hillside, here symbolic of the poetic genre, the mood, and the theme. By such pairings across akam and puṟam, love and war become part of the same universe and metaphors for one another; the same poets—for example, Paraṇar and Kapilar—wrote great poems in both genres. The basic…

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• short story
  • 
    In short story: Analysis of the genre

    …uniquely deployed motifs, personages, and symbols, tales are frequently fully understood only by members of the particular culture to which they belong. Simply, tales are intracultural. Seldom created to address an outside culture, a tale is a medium through which a culture speaks to itself and thus perpetuates its own…

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music

• Bach’s pictorial symbolism
  • 
    In Johann Sebastian Bach: Symbolism

    A repertoire of melody types existed, for example, that was generated by an explicit “doctrine of figures” that created musical equivalents for the figures of speech in the art of rhetoric. Closely related to these “figures” are such examples of pictorial symbolism in which…

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• percussion instruments
  • 
    In percussion instrument: Membranophones

    …pomp and circumstance and a symbol of power and prestige.

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    In percussion instrument: Membranophones

    …singers and are said to symbolize the transition from earth to heaven. Among the Wapenamundu of New Guinea they lack handles and are war drums. Such hourglass drums are not found in Polynesia. The other form is a conical footed drum made of a tree trunk, reaching great dimension. Those…

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• string instruments
  • 
    In stringed instrument: Social and cultural associations

    …clergy made frequent allegorical and symbolic reference to instruments, yet ironically, it is common to find depictions of angels, cherubs, or King David playing on the very instruments that were not permitted to sound in Christian worship. The Hindu attitude toward stringed instruments is very different. Though Vedic chanting is…

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• wind instruments
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    In wind instrument: In folk cultures of the world

    …for musical instruments to have symbolic significance. The form of an instrument or its decoration may relate to local myths, as do American Northwest Coast whistles carved in the shapes of birds and African ivory horns stained with human blood. Wind instruments in particular often have sexual connotations. Among the…

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symbols

• butterflies
  • 
    In lepidopteran

    …for thousands of years as symbols of fragile and ephemeral beauty. References to them abound in literature, and they have been depicted in many paintings, have inspired the designs of jewelry, ornaments, and textiles, and have even occurred in many heraldic devices and on postage stamps.

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• flowers
  • 
    In floral decoration: Middle Ages

    …intense religious fervour, and plant symbolism assumed great importance. There was both a liturgical and a secular language of flowers. In the church, for example, the rose symbolized the Virgin; in the chivalric courts, passionate love. Usually plant materials were casually placed in utilitarian containers such as earthenware jugs, bottles,…

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• rings
  • 
    In ring

    …body, rings have functioned as symbols of authority, fidelity, or social status. The famed Claddagh ring, a traditional Irish ring featuring a heart, a crown, and two hands, has long symbolized love, loyalty, and friendship, respectively. According to Irish custom, the ring’s positioning on the hand conveys the wearer’s marital…

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theatre

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  In theatrical production: Performing the piece

  …of a figure endowed with symbolic significance. In some societies, the actor is viewed not as a hero or demigod but as the epitome of contemporary society; elsewhere, the actor is a quixote, a member of a low class whose convincing impersonations unsettle concepts of order and rationality.

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• costumes
  • 
    In mask: General characteristics

    …all of which have a symbolic connection with the mask’s total imagery. Mask and costume are best understood as a unit and in performance.

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