Regional branches The reaction against parochialism and traditionalism was strengthened by the diffusion of Symbolism and Decadentism into other the
Romanian Kingdom's provincial areas, as well as by the steady influx of disappointed
middle-class provincials into Bucharest. Journalist and Symbolist promoter
Constantin Beldie recorded in his memoirs the arrival into the capital of "so many young men with their hair grown and with no
cuffs on their shirts", leaving their places of origin "because their parents did not understand them" and motivated by the encouragements "of some literary sheet or another, that would eventually be dragged down into the murky waters of journalism." The fascination of provincial Romanian adolescents with the poetic themes of Symbolism was later documented (and criticized) in the novel
La Medeleni, by the traditionalist
Ionel Teodoreanu. According to definitions from both within and without the Symbolist movement, there followed a structuring of Symbolism along the cultural priorities or characteristics of
historical regions: an extrovert and suggestive school, heralded by Macedonski himself, in the southwestern province of Wallachia; and a
melancholic branch to the north and east, in
Moldavia. The "Wallachians", primarily judged as exponents of an artistic approach, are Macedonski, Demetrescu and
Ion Pillat, alongside
Alexandru Colorian,
Elena Farago,
Barbu Solacolu,
Eugeniu Ștefănescu-Est etc. Of special note among the Symbolists emerging from Wallachia,
Al. T. Stamatiad was a cherished disciple of Macedonski, who left flowery erotic verse and, in succession to Petică's Aestheticism,
prose poems loosely based on those of
Oscar Wilde. At the other end of the spectrum, the early representatives of "Moldavian" Symbolism include Petică, Bacovia, Anghel,
Gabriel Donna,
Alfred Moșoiu,
I. M. Rașcu and
Alexandru Vițianu. According to literary historian
Ovid Crohmălniceanu, the spread of
literary modernism in general was helped along by "a certain insurgent fever of souls brought up in small Moldavian
târguri and exasperated by their somnolent atmosphere". Cernat also asserts: "The dramatic lessening in administrative importance of
Iași—Moldavia's former capital—generated a strong feeling of frustration among local intellectuals". The periodical was characterized not just by an advocacy of urban and
Westernized culture, but also by a strong interest in the common heritage of
Romance languages and tendencies toward
Pan-Latinism, with Densusianu calling into question the traditionalist notion that Romanian purity was only preserved in the countryside.
Vieața Nouă frequently published translations of modern French authors, from
Remy de Gourmont and
Marcel Proust to
Paul Claudel. The magazine also enlisted the participation of Densusianu's disciples in the field of literary criticism, within Moldavia and elsewhere:
D. Caracostea,
Pompiliu Păltânea and
Petre Haneș. With that, the influence of "academic" Symbolism stretched into Romania's new province of
Northern Dobruja, where poet
Al. Gherghel was stationed. Densusianu's academic current is seen with some reserve by researchers, who argued that its followers were only accidentally Symbolist, and primarily advocates of conventional approaches. According to literary historian
George Călinescu, Densusianu was more a Francophile than a Symbolist, and, as an immigrant from
Transylvania (at the time in
Austria-Hungary), out of touch with "the spirit of the new school." In Cernat's view, Densusianu's "tastelessness" and "narrow dogmatism" were a downgrading factor within the Symbolist environment, indirectly contributing to a schism between the Neoclassical and innovative sides of the movement. Although noted by the traditionalists as a most polemical magazine and somewhat successful in its competition with
Junimea,
Vieața Nouă remained a minor addition to the literary landscape, with very low circulation.
Sămănătorist reaction and 1908 revival Especially after 1905, the Symbolist trend was faced with a stronger reaction from the traditionalist and
ethno-nationalist camp, headed by the new literary magazine
Sămănătorul. Through historian
Nicolae Iorga, who was for a while its leading exponent, this circle instigated the public against Francophilia and cosmopolitanism, to the point of organizing the large-scale nationalist riots held in front of the
National Theatre Bucharest (1906). Iorga found Symbolism trivial, calling it "
lupanarium literature", while, in critic
Ilarie Chendi, the traditionalist magazines found a vocal adversary of Macedonski's influence. Nevertheless,
Sămănătorul cultivated its own
neoromatic branch of the Symbolist current, which Cernat described as a sign that the conservative segment of Symbolism was also emancipating itself. The Symbolist-
Sămănătorist wing was notably represented by two of the magazine's leading contributors:
Ștefan Octavian Iosif and his friend Dimitrie Anghel. Anghel's collaboration with Iosif took the for of a literary duo, a significant product of which was the neoromantic drama
Legenda funigeilor ("Gossamer Legend", 1907).
Sămănătorul also opened itself to contributions from other authors formed by Symbolism, from Petică and Stamatiad to Farago and
Alice Călugăru. Also at that stage, first-generation Symbolism in general was becoming more accepted by the cultural establishment, engendering some mutations at the movement's core. In contrast to their teacher Macedonski, several Romanian Symbolists were adopting neoromantic attitudes and viewing Eminescu's poetry with more sympathy, treasuring those Eminescian traits which were closest to Decadentism (idealism, moroseness, exoticism). Nevertheless, more radical traditionalist ideologues such as Iorga continued to view the current with alarm: in 1905, Iorga notably used
Sămănătorul to state his dislike for Anghel's floral-themed poetry, which he believed was suited to "boyar" tastes. On a more intimate level, Petică, seen by as "the most Eminescian Romanian poet", In reaction, a Symbolist core was defining itself as the
elitist alternative to the
Sămănătorul populism. By 1908, poet
Ion Minulescu was becoming the new herald of Romanian Symbolism, or, according to George Călinescu, its "most integral exponent". Minulescu's ascendancy was nevertheless synonymous with the movement's decline, inaugurating a mutation into the
avant-garde. His short-lived periodical, ''
Revista Celor L'alți, was notorious for publishing the manifesto Aprindeți torțele!'' ("Light Up the Torches!"), viewed by critics as either the first explicitly Symbolist document of its kind or the earliest voice of the avant-garde. It suggested to the readers that the "literary present" needed to be "lit up", claiming to align itself with those "young people who have the courage of tearing themselves from the crowd." The manifesto went on to explain Minulescu's take on artistic revolution: "[Young people] can only view the past with respect. They reserve their love for the future. [...] Liberty and individuality in art, the preservation of old forms acquired from their elders, the tendency in favor of things new, quaint, bizarre even, only extracting the characteristic parts out of life [...] and only focusing on things that set one man apart from another. [...] If literary tradition finds a revolutionary color on such flagpoles, so be it—we accept it!" Sandqvist summarizes the general objective as: "Art must create something new in any case, always and everywhere".
Symbolism meets Futurism and Expressionism Minulescu's moment of glory was unusual in its European context. Paul Cernat, who interprets
Aprindeți torțele! as a Symbolist work inspired by the ideas of French cultural critic
Remy de Gourmont, notes that, despite the movement's goal of reaching simultaneity with
Western culture, the moment of its publication came twenty years after France's original
Symbolist Manifesto. By then, Cernat also notes, international Symbolism was falling behind the more vocally
anti-establishment expressions of modernism:
Acmeism,
Cubism,
Expressionism,
Fauvism,
Futurism etc., several of which were coming to describe the older movement as effeminate and compromised. As in
Germanic Europe, the Art Nouveau scene of Romania was acting as a catalyst for the new Expressionist tendencies. The notion that Romanian Symbolism was belated to the point of anachronism is supported by other commentators. George Călinescu wrote: "
Baudelaire,
Verlaine, the Parnassians and the Symbolists were only discovered in our country almost a century after their emergence [in France]." Literary historian
Eugen Negrici reacts against the "illusion" according to which Romanian Symbolism announced the modernist phenomenon, while also arguing: "When, around 1900, French Symbolism was exhausted as a recipe, the Romanian one was just about getting born. Its flowering at roughly the same time as modern European poetry was configuring its typology is what has been leading us to proclaim its modernity." The post-1908 effort of synchronization with the European scene was a conscious one on the part of some Romanian Symbolists. Citing previous verdicts, linguist Manuela-Delia Suciu suggests that the period saw poets moving closer to the practice of Symbolism, overcoming the mainly theoretical and post-Romantic phase of the 1890s. Sandqvist reports: "Contemporary writers and intellectuals, as well as 'ordinary' readers, were shocked as much by the [''Revista Celor L'alți'' group's] disillusioned, sarcastic, and bizarre way of handling lyrical motifs with the help of, for instance, intertwined sounds, colors, and scents, as by their choice of subject matter, where the city parks, the streets, and the buildings are inhabited by prostitutes, criminals, the insane, and
erotomaniacs and where hospitals, restaurants, cathedrals, and palaces play a prominent role as 'scenes of the crime.' Everything anguished, neurotic, macabre, bizarre, exotic, unusual, theatrical, grotesque,
elegiac, light-hearted, sensuous, dripping, and monotonous was celebrated as well as everything trivial, everyday, tedious, and empty, at the same time as the poets were borrowing freely from world literature, blending images and metaphors, motifs, and atmospheres." According to Cernat, ''Revista Celor L'alți''s choice of name (literally, "the others' magazine") indicated a break with Densusianu's version of Symbolism, although the
Vieața Nouă doyen still contributed to Minulescu's review. Also in 1908,
Vieața Nouă had published Densusianu's influential praise of free verse poetry,
Versul liber și dezvoltarea estetică a limbii literare ("Free Verse and the Aesthetic Development of the
Literary Language"). was overshadowed by the indignation of
Dumitru Karnabatt. The latter, who would subsequently become a contributor to traditionalist papers, suggested at the time that all the Futurists were insane.
Symbolist bohemians ") or
La berărie ("In the Beer-house"), 1915 satirical painting by the traditionalist
Ștefan Dimitrescu Minulescu's own poetry of the period was noted for its insolent and flamboyant language, its urban themes and its inspiration from
romanzas—all characteristics attributed by critics to the Wallachian tradition within Symbolism. Its success with a middle class feminine public was reportedly devastating; noted earlier for his derision of Macedonskian Symbolism. In Minulescu's time, the Symbolist movement began cultivating a
bohemian society, which in turn rested on Romania's older
coffee culture. Its use of
coffeehouses as informal clubs consequently became at once a mark of Romanian Symbolism and a characteristic of early 20th century literary life. The Symbolists' example in this respect was taken up by traditionalist authors: the two currents soon after faced each other on a daily basis, debating lively in Bucharest establishments such as
Casa Capșa,
Kübler and
Terasa Oteteleșanu. The two camps were however united by professional interest, and together created the
Romanian Writers' Society, which became functional in 1909. Another significant event occurred in 1912, when Macedonski made his return from an extended stay in
Paris. His cause charmed the younger poets, among whom
Ion Pillat and
Horia Furtună became his dedicated promoters and publicists. The late Symbolist period was especially important for Pillat and Furtună, whose poems adhere closely to the models set by Macedonski (in Pillat's case, with an emphasis on exoticism). Pillat's Symbolist debut also had an international aspect: familiarized in Paris with the French Symbolist and Parnassians, he translated their work at home, presided over an "Academy of the 10" while in France, and later authored definitive anthologies of Symbolist poetry. Pillat's colleague
Tudor Vianu, who spoke about his own affiliation with Ovid Densusianu's Symbolism in 1913, described the cultural significance of renewed debates: "Romanian Symbolism was a chapter in the permanent
querelle des anciens et des modernes. We [Symbolists] were inspired by the idea that modern life may enter the universal synthesis of art and that, once he rises above the archaism and traditionalism of consecrated literary models, a poet must test himself on the road toward those subjects that characterize the life and the civilization of his own age." The informal faction, regrouped around Macedonski, Davidescu and Stamatiad, was soon joined by
Alexandru Dominic,
Oreste Georgescu,
Adrian Maniu and
Marcel Romanescu;
Left-wing contacts In the wake of Romania's
1907 Peasants' Revolt, Symbolism was consolidating its links with the
left-wing movements, which were at the time recovering from the split of Dobrogeanu-Gherea's
Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party into several small groups. The leftist representatives of Symbolism were finding new allies among the scattered socialist circles and setting up connections with
Poporanism, the leftist version of traditionalism. Such contacts were built on Arghezi's collaboration with socialist activist
N. D. Cocea and the left-leaning writer
Gala Galaction (later known as a
Romanian Orthodox theologian), who had started their relationship while working on
Linia Dreaptă, moving on to create
Viața Socială,
Rampa and then on a succession of short-lived papers. The mix of Symbolists and socialists was described as ineffectual by the traditionalist witness Chendi, who, in 1912, argued: "Mr. Cocea wanted to break through and resorted to our young Decadents and Symbolists in Bucharest, who nevertheless, having not one thing in common with the doctrines of socialism, could not pay as much service to the magazine [
Viața Socială] as to prevent from going under, in explicable manner." Arghezi, who had by that moment embarked on and forfeited a career in Orthodox monasticism, was beginning to merge influences from Symbolism with traditionalist and avant-garde
poetics, into a new original format. His disappointment with the Church experience was by then also manifested in his search for an alternative
spirituality, his vocal
anticlericalism and his interest in
Christian heresy. A promoter of both Decadentism and
didactic art, Gala Galaction was affiliated with the main Poporanist venue,
Viața Românească. The latter magazine, occupying the middle ground between Dobrogeanu-Gherea's socialism and
Sămănătorism, was generally opposed to art for art's sake, but had its own separate links with the Symbolist environment. These reached to the top of its editorial board: the publication's ideologue and co-founder
Garabet Ibrăileanu sympathized with its
lyricism, and, like various other writers from the Poporanist schools, adopted Decadent themes in his own works of fiction. In 1908, the review also hosted one of the first scholarly studies of Symbolism to be produced in Romania, the work of woman critic
Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan. Progressively after that date, the Poporanist circle opened itself toward those representatives of Symbolist poetry who had parted with Densusianu's branch, upholding Arghezi as a major Romanian author. It also provided exposure to distinct representatives of feminine Symbolist poetry, illustrated there by Alice Călugăru or Farago. Nevertheless, the aesthetic implications of Ibrăileanu's traditionalism and
Viața Româneascăs cooperation with the governing
National Liberal Party drew criticism from the more radical Cocea. Meanwhile, another distinct link with leftist politics was preserved through the
proletarian-themed school of Symbolist poetry, inaugurated by
Traian Demetrescu and later illustrated by Bacovia,
Mihail Cruceanu,
Andrei Naum,
Alexandru Toma. This wing of Symbolism, together with the Arghezi-Galaction tandem, also enjoyed close relationships with some advocates of
Social Realism, among them
I. C. Vissarion and
Vasile Demetrius.
Symbolist climate and modern art venues ,
Lux in tenebris lucet, 1909 The literary mutation was echoed in local modern art, where the currents emerging from
post-Impressionism,
Synthetism and Fauvism were being slowly acclimatized. This transition was in large part owed to graphic artist
Iosif Iser, known for his adversity to Secession art, but also for his contributions to the
German Jugend In 1908, Iser organized a Bucharest exhibit of works by French-based modernists
André Derain,
Jean-Louis Forain and
Demetrios Galanis. Also famous as the illustrator of Minulescu and Arghezi, he progressively incorporated the newer artistic styles into his personal palette—resulting in what some have called "Iserism". According to
semiotician Sorin Alexandrescu, there emerged a pattern of anti-Symbolism among Romanian painters, including those who studied with French Symbolist teachers. Alexandrescu writes that Romanian art students were "opaque to both the symbolic substance and the decorative efflorescence that so enthused the Paris of their formative years", only preserving from this environment a love for the "
picturesque". The period also witnessed the arrival into art criticism of Symbolist poet
Theodor Cornel. Although he died a young man in 1911, Cornel is credited with having introduced Romanians to the
primitivist and exotic tendencies of post-Impressionism, and to have been among the first authoritative critics in the country to discuss such new phenomena as Cubism or
Abstraction, sometimes in competition with the Moldavian Expressionist painter
Arthur Segal. This context produced the first works by Romanian primitivists:
Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck,
Friedrich Storck,
Ion Theodorescu-Sion, and, foremost among them, sculptor
Constantin Brâncuși. Of this group, Brâncuși did not generally follow the Symbolist guidelines, and instead reached international fame with an original semi-abstract modernist style influenced by
Romanian folklore. Theodorescu-Sion also discarded all forms of Symbolism by the end of the decade, and incorporated into his art the solid shape painting of
Paul Cézanne, while Cuțescu-Storck was still a classical Symbolist in 1910. With draftsman
Ary Murnu, she contributed Art Nouveau illustrations to the
Tinerimea catalogs. By 1911,
Tinerimea had also received into its ranks the painter
Theodor Pallady, whose debut works were dominated by Symbolist imagery, but who was later a prominent anti-Symbolist. The new generation of Romanian Symbolist artists also included several sculptors who, like Brâncuși, trained with French master
Auguste Rodin:
Horia Boambă,
Teodor Burcă,
Anghel Chiciu,
Filip Marin,
Ion Jalea,
Dimitrie Paciurea,
Alexandru Severin. Boambă earned a short-lived notoriety with works contrasting delicate figures with rough surfaces, while Marin alternated academic busts with Symbolist statuettes. A poet as well as sculptor, Severin was close to Alexandru Macedonski, with whom he founded
Cenaclul Idealist ("The Idealist Club"), also including painters
Alexis Macedonski,
Leon Alexandru Biju and
Dimitrie Mihăilescu. The young Paciurea was mainly adapting Rodin's Impressionist themes to the Romanian historist school, and only later became a truly Symbolist artist.
Insula and Simbolul ,
Interior oriental ("Oriental Interior", 1916), with a portrait of
Claudia Millian Since shortly before the
Second Balkan War and continuing down to
World War I, local Symbolism experienced other more radical mutations into the avant-garde. Paul Cernat suggests that this interval brought into existence a "Symbolism of the independents" or "people's Symbolism", opposed to Densusianu's version but indebted to "Minulescianism", to Bacovia and to Arghezi. The new expression of Romanian Symbolism, Cernat also notes, was playful, theatrical and centered on the
petite bourgeoisie, receiving post-Symbolist influences not just from Expressionism and Futurism, but also from
Imagism,
'Pataphysics or
Zutisme. As the inventor of Futurism and propagandist of the new artistic credo,
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti maintained close links with Romanian intellectuals, efforts which notably brought him into contact with Alexandru Macedonski. These new tendencies made an impact on the work of established figures within the Symbolist movement. Minulescu began infusing his original Symbolist style with borrowings from more radical modernists, becoming one of the few Romanian authors of the 1910s to incorporate elements of Futurism, and introducing some Expressionist techniques in his works for the stage. In parallel, Bacovia modified his own style by appropriating characteristics of Expressionist poetry. Among the new representatives of this trend were the innovative poet
Adrian Maniu and his younger emulators,
Ion Vinea and
Tristan Tzara. All of them, in varying degrees, owed inspiration to the innovative Symbolism of Laforgue, whose hallmark poetic motif, that of the hanged man, they each reworked into tribute poems. Maniu parted with Symbolism almost immediately after this stage, and the form of post- and anti-Symbolist
experimental literature he generated helped to inspire similar moves on his colleagues' part. Published in spring 1912, Minulescu's new review
Insula consecrated some of these developments. In Cernat's view, the new publication surpassed ''Revista Celor L'alți'' in both radicalism and public exposure. It hosted contributions by poet and critic
N. Davidescu, who clarified the magazine's position in a series of articles, postulating a difference between Decadentism (seen as a negative phenomenon and identified as such with traditionalism) and Symbolism. Elsewhere, his texts spoke about Futurism as having some "absurd and useless parts", and being overall monotonous. The circle of
Insula affiliates notably included Bacovia, Beldie, Cruceanu, Dragoslav, Karnabatt, Ștefănescu-Est, Vițianu, and (on his literary debut) Maniu. These authors illustrated a diversity of approaches within the Symbolist milieu. Many preserved the fascination with the exotic, from Ștefănescu-Est's colorful depictions of imaginary lands to Săulescu's dreams of solitary
atolls, whereas Isac's version of Symbolism created unconventional lyrical pieces, mostly noted for their Imagism and their ironic twists. The focus on decorative and artificial subjects was also preserved by Millian, in works which often depict scenes of seduction, and by Sperantia, who found his niche on the margin of Parnassianism. In contrast to Minulescu's cheerfulness and in agreement with the Moldavian wing of the Symbolist movement, Iacobescu wrote sad poems reflecting his losing battle with
tuberculosis, and gained a following among young Romanian intellectuals. Other than these writers, the
Insula group played home to
Nae Ionescu, the future
far-right philosopher—at the time a cultural promoter with Futurist and
syndicalist sympathies. Late in the same year, Vinea, Tzara and graphic artist
Marcel Janco—all still high school students at the time—began publishing
Simbolul magazine. This new Symbolist and post-Symbolist tribune received contributions from Minulescu, from his
Insula group, and even from Macedonski. Among the other contributors were
Poldi Chapier,
Alfred Hefter-Hidalgo,
Barbu Solacolu,
Constantin T. Stoika and
George Stratulat. Especially through the articles of Maniu and Emil Isac, the paper made a point of shunning convention, rekindling polemics with the traditionalists. Janco, together with Iser, Maniu and Millian, provided the illustrations for the few issues
Simbolul published before closing down in December 1912. Cocea's new socialist magazine,
Facla, signified the start of collaborations between the leftist activists and various of the
Simbolul contributors. Illustrated by Iser, the magazine enlisted Vinea as a literary columnist—inaugurating the adolescent poet's parallel evolution into an opinion journalist with socially radical views. Rebelling against traditional,
positivist criticism, the young author made sustained efforts to familiarize his public with aesthetic alternatives:
Walt Whitman and
Guillaume Apollinaire's poetry, Gourmont's essays, the theoretical particularities of
Russian Symbolism etc.
Eclectic magazines '' (
Oradea, 1926) A product of Densusianu's school, the Iași-based magazine
Versuri și Proză grouped various of Densusianu's admirers:
I. M. Rașcu (the publication's founder), Cruceanu, Sperantia, Stamatiad, Vițianu. Both Rașcu and Cruceanu favored a delicate Symbolism individualized by exotic settings (Cruceanu) or
Roman Catholic devotion (Rașcu).
Versuri și Proză nevertheless gave positive coverage to Futurism, hosting contributions from Arghezi, Bacovia, Macedonski and Minulescu alike, as well as from more rebellious modernist authors and new wave Symbolists—including articles by its co-editor Hefter-Hidalgo, pieces by Maniu and the first-ever works signed by
F. Brunea-Fox. The publication also registered the debut of
Perpessicius, later known as a poet and critic with Symbolist sensibilities, and the early lyrical works of
Nicolae Budurescu and
Dragoș Protopopescu. In parallel, others who followed Densusianu's principles went on to create provincial versions of
Vieața Nouă:
Farul,
Sărbătoarea Eroilor and Stamatiad's
Grădina Hesperidelor. Symbolists like Minulescu or Arghezi also found unexpected backing from the conservative
Junimist Mihail Dragomirescu and his disciple
Ion Trivale,
art for art's sake advocates who allowed such works to be published in their
Convorbiri Critice magazine. Their literary club was also home to Stamatiad,
Anastasie Mândru,
I. Dragoslav and other young men who admired Macedonski. This attitude, Cernat suggests, was linked to Dragomirescu's personal preference for
Richard Wagner's theories on music, which showed a predisposition for modernism, and which had led him into a debate with his former mentor Maiorescu. Likewise, art historian Adriana Șotropa notes that both Dragomirescu and Trivale promoted an individual form of Aestheticism, while Dragomirescu biographer Adrian Tudorachi assessed that
Convorbiri Critice and the Symbolists shared a love for "interiority" in literary expression. Despite such points of contact, Trivale was mostly noted for his overall rejection of Symbolist literature, and the
Convorbiri Critice circle endured as a permanent target for ridicule on the part of young modernists. Another
Junimist figure,
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru, opened his paper
Noua Revistă Română to contributions from various figures in the Symbolist and modernist field. The conservative venue notably published Tzara's early poems, Cocea's art chronicles, the pro-Symbolist articles of novelist
Felix Aderca and various pieces by the
Simbolul group. The post-
Junimist magazines were joined in this context by
Constantin Banu's eclectic review,
Flacăra, itself noted for circulating the writings of young Symbolists and post-Symbolists. One new voice emerging from its circle was
Victor Eftimiu, whose work in drama was largely a neoromantic adaptation a
fairy tale format, with the genre conventions introduced by
Edmond Rostand (''
Înșir'te mărgărite). His other contributions in verse moved between the extremes of Neoclassical reworkings of Greek mythology and sentimental Symbolism. Also affiliated for a while with Flacăra'', where he made his debut as a poet,
Tudor Vianu later turned to a career in literary history, and was especially noted for the moderation of his views. In addition to such critical inclusivism, the Symbolist movement profited from the intercession of established journalists with Symbolist credentials: Beldie, Cocea and Pillat, all of whom promoted it within the mainstream press. The environment hosted poet
Barbu Nemțeanu, whose version of Symbolism generally followed an "
intimist" perspective, alternating with humorous depictions of provincial life. Another poet in this succession was
Luca Caragiale, whose work stood for a cosmopolitan reinterpretation of urban
kitsch.
Cross-cultural Symbolism and ethnic enclaves (1907) A distinct milieu to participate in the post-Symbolist transition was that of
Jewish-Romanian writers and artists, a category to which Iacobescu, Nemțeanu, Aderca, Brunea-Fox, Hefter-Hidalgo, Iser, Janco and Tzara all belonged. Traditionally seen by various critics as a coagulating factor for the emerging avant-garde, to which they purportedly contributed their ideal of eluding
shtetl culture, their protest in favor of
political emancipation, and their
secularist graft of
Jewish philosophy, these figures were received with interest by the left-wing Symbolists, who militated for cultural pluralism and social integration. Originally writing in the line of "Moldavian" Symbolism and Arghezi, to which he attached the influence of his
Hasidic roots and
bucolic echoes from Romanian traditionalism, poet and critic
Benjamin Fondane (Fundoianu) became a leading exponent of this process. Over the late 1910s also, his writings incorporated echoes from Expressionism, announcing his eventual presence at the forefront of Romania's avant-garde. In the years before World War I erupted on Romania's border, the Iași modernist environment witnessed the journalistic debut of two Jewish intellectuals, each of them owners of a literary review with Symbolist and leftist agendas who declared their allegiance to Arghezi:
Eugen Relgis (
Fronda) and
Isac Ludo (
Absolutio). In parallel, a Jewish and
Zionist application of Art Nouveau, directly inspired by the art of
Galician lithographer
Ephraim Moses Lilien, was developed in drawing by
Reuven Rubin (whose paintings of the time experimented with primitivist aesthetics). Symbolism also covers an early period in the career of
Lola Schmierer Roth, the
Galați-born Jewish artist. the impact of Symbolism among the Romanians on the northern slope of the
Carpathians remained minor, and the appeal of traditionalist literature in such communities was virtually unchallenged. Some Symbolist echoes were captured in the poems of
Octavian Goga, editor of the traditionalist paper
Luceafărul, as well as in the paintings of
Octavian Smigelschi. This lack of interest was contrasted by the region's
Magyar and
Saxon intelligentsia, which assimilated international Art Nouveau and, more distantly, Symbolism as vehicles of national revival, in line with the architectural work of
Ödön Lechner. In some of the Transylvanian urban centers, including
Baia Mare (Nagybánya),
Oradea (Nagyvárad),
Cluj (Kolozsvár),
Târgu Mureș (Marosvásárhely) and
Timișoara (Temesvár), the public commissioned Art Nouveau buildings from major architects, such as Lechner and
Otto Wagner. Transylvanian contributors to Symbolism and post-Symbolism in
Hungarian art or
literature include polymath
Károly Kós and some early members of the
Baia Mare School of painting. Vienna Secession aesthetics had some influence on several Transylvanian-born Hungarians, from Symbolist poet
Endre Ady and
modern classical composer
Béla Bartók Later, artist
János Mattis-Teutsch moved between Secession Symbolism,
Der Blaue Reiter and Abstraction, while also bridging the parallel developments of Hungarian, Saxon and Romanian art. This communication between Hungarian and Romanian Symbolism was also taken up by the early modernist magazine
Nyugat (which notably published works by Isac) and by the Secession-inspired socialist painter
Aurel Popp. ==Late Symbolism==