Images of madness in visual art: a Russian Symbolist iconography

ONE OF THE distinguishing aspects of the arts in Russia at the turn of the twentieth century was the aim to unite different forms of artistic expression, such as literature, music, theater, dance, painting and sculpture. These attempts—at times serious, at times more playful—were to be found in virtually every movement, but Symbolist writers in particular focused on the aim of synthesis, which they believed would give rise to a higher art. This was reflected per-haps most clearly on the pages of the journals in which the Symbolists published their work