symbolic art, n.Definitions

Symbolic art (n.) distorted ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠its forms into giants, monsters and beasts half-bird, half-animal, above all in Egypt, groping toward an absolute too boundless to be given sensuous shape.

Symbolic art (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠always more or less limitless: a self-consciousness not yet complete pushes on, seeks, divines and produces without repose — only a spirit that has found its adequate shape can stop.

Symbolic art (n.) has ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠an Idea still too vague to know itself, so it corrupts and falsifies the shapes it borrows from nature — meaning and shape show their affinity and their foreignness at once.

Symbolic art (n.) in ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠architecture is a language present for its own sake, even if wordless — a building that exists only to stimulate thought.