The Nabis and Symbolist Theater

Through a rereading of the available textual and visual sources of Symbolist theater and of the work of Nabi artists, as well as through an analysis of sources and paintings previously unexamined in the existing literature, this book rewrites the history of the cross-fertilization between Nabi art and Symbolist theater. Symbolist theaters functioned as platforms for the exchange of ideas between Symbolists of different artistic disciplines, providing stages for artistic experiment and collaboration. Merel van Tilburg shows how Nabi visual art and theory were firmly embedded in the Symbolist theatrical, literary and aesthetic context. The impact of Symbolist theories on Nabi thinking, their translation into art, and the traces of a Symbolist theatricality in Nabi painting are all scrutinized.