Worth noting is that Tolstoy finds sincerity almost always present in “peasant art” but almost always absent in “upper-class art”. These theories are made to justify the existing art canon which covers anything from Greek art to Shakespeare and Beethoven. His most famous novels are, (1877). Despite its many weaknesses, this system offers an interesting alternative to judging and appreciating art. The Entombment of Christ by Greco, El Greco, 1570-1576, National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum. web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/phil of art/tolstoy.outline.htm 12 that the recipient experience the same emotion as the artist in a very strong sense of identifying with the artist (see above). After traveling Europe and witnessing the suffering and cruelty of the world, Tolstoy was transformed. It has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. but also in the essays he wrote on cultural and religious subjects. … And it is upon this capacity of man to receive another man’s expression of feeling and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based. To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling — this is the activity of art. According to Tolstoy art is the intentional communication of an emotion from the artist to the audience where the hope is that the audience feels the emotion felt by the artist. The more infectious the artwork, the better. This function of art is not only useful but also necessary for the progress and wellbeing of humanity. The Russian painter created a series of portraits of Tolstoy, which were exhibited together at the 2019 exhibition, at the State Museum L.N. “What is truth” Christ and Pilate, Nikolai Ge, 1890, State Tretyakov Gallery. It facilitates access to the psychology of others fostering empathy and understanding by tearing down the walls of the Subject. If it is moral, then it is good art. This core quality of art Tolstoy calls its “infectiousness,” and upon the artist’s ability to “infect” others depends the very recognition of something as art: If only the spectators or auditors are infected by the feelings which the author has felt, it is art. translated by Aline Delano. Which is to say that for Tolstoy art is a sort of language, a means of communication by which a person communicates his/her thoughts to another, a way to transfer information, a rational cognitive operation. To this interpretation leads Tolstoy’s view that, even if a society recognizes no religion, it always has a religious morality. So, what is art for Tolstoy? I have no staff, no interns, not even an assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. Tolstoy’s theory has a lot of charming aspects. the Novels and Other Works of Lyof N. Tolstoy. The chief peculiarity of this feeling is that the receiver of a true artistic impression is so united to the artist that he feels as if the work were his own and not someone else’s — as if what it expresses were just what he had long been wishing to express. ‘The Aesthetic Theory of Leo Tolstoy’s What Is Art?’. Brain Pickings participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to Amazon. Portrait of Leo Tolstoy, Ilya Repin, 1912, Penaty Estate Museum of Ilya Repin. Such are the three conditions which divide art from its counterfeits, and which also decide the quality of every work of art apart from its subject matter. Charmed by the faith of the common people, he turned to Christianity. Otherwise it is just a counterfeit posing as real art. StuDocu Summary Library EN. This rationale leads Tolstoy to a very bizarre idea. This is a process of moral realization and results in society becoming kinder and more compassionate. Here's an example. 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Works of art are everywhere, according to this view. If this labor has enlarged and enriched your own life this year, please consider aiding its sustenance with a one-time or loyal donation. Every work of art causes the receiver to enter into a certain kind of relationship both with him who produced, or is producing, the art, and with all those who, simultaneously, previously, or subsequently, receive the same artistic impression. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. with Tolstoy’s timeless Calendar of Wisdom and this rare recording of the author reading from the latter in English shortly before his death. According to Tolstoy, good art is what carries humanity towards perfection (Tolstoy 383). I have mentioned three conditions of contagiousness in art, but they may be all summed up into one, the last, sincerity, i.e., that the artist should be impelled by an inner need to express his feeling. He died in 1810 at the age of 82 after suffering from pneumonia. Tolstoy’s writing made him famous around the world and he is justly considered among the four giants of Russian Literature next to Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Turgenev. In addition, it removes the barrier between the receivers who experience unity through a common feeling. His family belonged in the Russian aristocracy and thus Leo inherited the title of count. This means that art serves as a mechanism of cohesion for everyone. Leo Tolstoy in the Room with the Arches, Ilya Repin, 1891, State Russian Museum. To take the simplest example; one man laughs, and another who hears His most famous novels are War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). If it is not moral, it is bad. Even a boy telling the story of how he met a wolf can be art. The innumerable feelings experienced by humans both in past and present are available to us only through art. Eventually, he left the army right after the end of the Crimean War in 1856. — Before anything, we need to question if a work of art is moral. In this process, the receiver of the artistic impression becomes so united with the artist’s experience, that he/she feels like the artwork is his/her own. Leo Tolstoy, Russian author, a master of realistic fiction and one of the world’s greatest novelists. —. Leo Graf Tolstoy. At one point in his essay, he states that Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette, Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, and his own War and Peace are immoral and therefore bad art. According to Tolstoy, what the artist does is communicate his emotions to the people in his audience and in doing so, evoke those same emotions in them. 1975. That condition includes the first; for if the artist is sincere he will express the feeling as he experienced it. His family belonged in the Russian aristocracy and thus Leo inherited the title of count. Brain Pickings has a free Sunday digest of the week's most interesting and inspiring articles across art, science, philosophy, creativity, children's books, and other strands of our search for truth, beauty, and meaning. More information regarding the relationship between Tolstoy and Repin can be found in this, Leo Tolstoy in his Study at Yasnaya Polyana, , Ilya Repin, 1887, The Leo Tolstoy State Museum. Antonis is an archaeologist with a passion for museums and heritage and a keen interest in aesthetics and the reception of classical art. His acute social concern is manifest not only in What Is Art? The sincerity of the artist: the force with which the artist feels the emotion he/she transmits through his/her art. He offers three conditions that determine the degree of infectiousness: The stronger the infection, the better is the art as art, speaking now apart from its subject matter, i.e., not considering the quality of the feelings it transmits. For Tolstoy, art was a means of communication between people which expressed feelings. Because we have forgotten, or never knew, the meaning of art, we have dubbed art as “an activity producing pleasure.” For them beauty is either that which provides a certain kind of pleasure or that which is perfect according to objective, universal laws. Those who realize the impossibility of objectively defining beauty, turn to a study of taste asking why a thing pleases. Tolstoy encapsulates his definition of art in the following passages: “To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling – this is the activity of art. pp. But what does Tolstoy exactly mean when he says that something is good or bad art? Tolstoy s Aesthetics - Summary What Is Art - What Is Art. For Tolstoy, the religious perception of his time is found in Christianity. Leo Graf Tolstoy. Tolstoy postulates art’s general purpose Every work of art causes the receiver to enter into a certain kind of relationship both with him who produced, or is producing, the art, and with all those who, simultaneously, previously, or subsequently, receive the same artistic impression. Claim yours: Also: Because Brain Pickings is in its fourteenth year and because I write primarily about ideas of a timeless character, I have decided to plunge into my vast archive every Wednesday and choose from the thousands of essays one worth resurfacing and resavoring. It is safe to say that more than a century after Tolstoy’s death, “What is Art?” retains its appeal. This is, in my view, the strongest point of Tolstoy’s theory. The loss of such a unique ability would be a catastrophe. “Men would be like beasts”, says Tolstoy, and even goes as far as to claim that without art, mankind could not exist. We should not easily dismiss the idea that (good) art communicates feelings and promotes unity through universal understanding. It is this movement forward in humanity that is emphasized by Tolstoy. In particular, I think that Aristotle and Leo Tolstoy would have a lot to say about this piece. And this same sincerity will impel the artist to find a clear expression of the feeling which he wishes to transmit. Tolstoy’s writing made him famous around the world and he is justly considered among the four giants of Russian Literature next to Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Turgenev. Theories of art based on beauty or taste inescapably include only that type of art that appeals to certain people: “First acknowledging a certain set of productions to be art (because they please us) and then framing such a theory of art that all those productions which please a certain circle of people should fit into it.”. Although he takes a clear stance in favor of Christianity as a valid foundation for morality, his definition of religious perception is flexible. Sketches of Leo Tolstoy, Ilya Repin, 1891, Private Collection. Tolstoy in peasant clothing, Ilya Repin, 1901, State Russian Museum. Art is a means of communicating feelings the same way words transmit thoughts. Upon completing his masterpiece Anna Karenina, Tolstoy fell into a state of insufferable existential despair. 6 Tolstoy called explicit attention to his primary disagreement with Véron when he wrote that the expression of emotions was not in itself a sufficient guarantee of the presence of art. He believes that art is a means of communicating emotion, with the aim of promoting mutual understanding. Tolstoy’s theory has a lot of charming aspects. Subscribe to this free midweek pick-me-up for heart, mind, and spirit below — it is separate from the standard Sunday digest of new pieces: By 1897, Leo Tolstoy (September 9, 1828–November 20, 1910) was already a literary legend of worldwide acclaim and a man deeply invested in his ultimate quest to unravel the most important wisdom on life. But what does Tolstoy exactly mean when he says that something is good or bad art? Tolstoy argues that, much as in Samuel Delany’s distinction between good writing vs. talented writing, the degree of infectiousness is what separates good art from excellent art. Furthermore, a work that does not evoke feelings and spiritual union with others is counterfeit art. Tolstoy does not that counterfeit art cannot evoke emotion, he is saying that the emotion that counterfeit art produces is not the purpose of art. In 1851 he joined the tsarist army to pay off his accumulated debt but quickly regretted this decision. are immoral and therefore bad art. Tolstoy’s definition expands to almost every aspect of human activity way beyond the fine arts. As a result, all good art must carry the foundational message of this religion understood as brotherhood among all people. The true definition of art, according to Tolstoy, should be based on moral principles. I have no staff, no interns, not even an assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. In 1851 he joined the tsarist army to pay off his accumulated debt but quickly regretted this decision. Emotional infectiousness is a necessary quality of a work of art. Explain Tolstoy's theory in as much detail as you can. — This understanding is the moral compass of a society and always points towards certain values. These theories are made to justify the existing art canon which covers anything from. Within this framework, a good work of art must also be moral. According to Tolstoy’s approach, an item is an artwork if and only if it is intended to transmit emotions to the audience, and therefore incite the individualized passion of audiences. As you ... For Tolstoy, art was a means of communication between people which expressed feelings. In that case, it only remains to judge whether this real artwork is good or bad, more or less successful. Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them. Tolstoy s Aesthetics - Summary What Is Art - What Is Art. University. And what is the nature of the morality he uses for his artistic judgments? The activity of art is based on the fact that a man, receiving through his sense of hearing or sight another man’s expression of feeling, is capable of experiencing the emotion which moved the man who expressed it. Tolstoy’s book concerns how art can express ideas of how to act right and what it’s purpose is. was born in 1828 in his family estate of Yasnaya Polyana, some 200km from Moscow. Personally, I do not approach Tolstoy’s theory as a set of laws for understanding art. The... Cubist art emerged within the first decade of the twentieth century, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Again, Tolstoy sees no point in this, as taste is also subjective. This is a bold declaration, which recalls the Nietzschean aphorism that human existence is justified only as an aesthetic phenomenon. Book title What Is Art; Author. Tolstoy. - Leo Tolstoy quotes from BrainyQuote.com In the usual understanding of the words, how-ever, "bad art" means something closer to "non-art" or "weak art." A genuinely good artwork ought to make accessible these good feelings that move humanity closer to its moral completion. Tolstoy requires 32 Hospers, “The Concept of Artistic Expression,” p. 158. Your support makes all the difference. The success of an artwork is based firstly on the degree of its infectiousness. Your support makes all the difference. Lamenting the growing perversion of the art world, which has warped our ability to tell good art from bad, Tolstoy insists that the only way to distinguish true art from its counterfeit is by this very notion of infectiousness: If a man, without exercising effort and without altering his standpoint on reading, hearing, or seeing another man’s work, experiences a mental condition which unites him with that man and with other people who also partake of that work of art, then the object evoking that condition is a work of art. You can also become a spontaneous supporter with a one-time donation in any amount: Partial to Bitcoin? (1896) is a written work about his ideas concerning the nature of art. 2017/2018 Thus is art divided from that which is not art, and thus is the quality of art as art decided, independently of its subject matter, i.e., apart from whether the feelings it transmits are good or bad. Although it relates to religion, religious perception is not the same with religious cult. He frequently publishes articles about art, history, and philosophy, while writing for TheCollector. but also in the essays he wrote on cultural and religious subjects. Tolstoy's aesthetics is a classic formulation of the expressive theory of art. He holds an MSc in Museum Studies from the University of Glasgow and a BA in History and Archaeology from the University of Athens (NKUA). Good art is the ability for the audience or viewer to … Tolstoy thinks that both cases lead to subjective definitions of beauty and in turn to subjective definitions of art. Tolstoy provides five simple, clear, touching examples of art which elicit familial sentiments that form an emotional bond which all can experience. Looking at Op Art can be a mind-blowing experience, tricking our eyes into seeing the unbelievable and impossible. Leo Tolstoy created his own definition of art and succeeded in justifying it. 328-527. A work about the meaning of art and a fertile foundation on which truly beautiful ideas can flourish. War and Peace in How can we define art? By Tolstoy’s theory of art the works of Jacques-Louis David are also considered art objects, and furthermore can be considered to be important art. Tolstoy’s aesthetic values are based on communication of emotion, which falls in line with Collinwood’s ideas of art, in that art is the release of a pent up emotion. Eventually, he dismissed the Russian Church and every other Church as corrupted and looked for his own answers. Academic year. And what is the nature of the morality he uses for his artistic judgments? On what might be called the full-blown version of expression theory — instances of which were held by Leo Tolstoy and by Clive Bell — expression is understood as a matter of the communication or transmission of emotion or feeling from artist to audience via the work of art. Before answering the question, the Russian novelist seeks a proper basis for his definition. The communication that Tolstoy writes about in “What Is Art?” is of two types, good and bad. His acute social concern is manifest not only in What Is Art? (1896) is a written work about his ideas concerning the nature of art. And the degree of the infectiousness of art depends on three conditions: The more individual the feeling transmitted the more strongly does it act on the receiver; the more individual the state of soul into which he is transferred, the more pleasure does the receiver obtain, and therefore the more readily and strongly does he join in it. Therefore, real art removes the barrier between Subject and Object, and between receiver and sender of an artistic impression. 59-65. Art as a Communication of Emotion According to Leo Tolstoy, art place a huge role in communication to its audience emotions that the artist previously experienced. The Oath of the Horatii is one such piece. And as each man is different from everyone else, his feeling will be individual for everyone else; and the more individual it is — the more the artist has drawn it from the depths of his nature — the more sympathetic and sincere will it be. 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