Visual Arts Are a That Communicates Ideas and Feelings Without Words
How can we ascertain art? What is accurate art and what is good fine art? Leo Tolstoy answered these questions in "What is Fine art?" (1897), his nigh comprehensive essay on the theory of fine art. Tolstoy's theory has a lot of charming aspects. He believes that art is a means of communicating emotion, with the aim of promoting common understanding. By gaining sensation of each other's feelings nosotros can successfully practise empathy and ultimately unite to farther mankind's collective well-being.
Furthermore, Tolstoy firmly denies that pleasure is art's sole purpose. Instead, he supports a moral-based art able to entreatment to anybody and not just the privileged few. Although he takes a clear stance in favor of Christianity as a valid foundation for morality, his definition of religious perception is flexible. Equally a result, information technology is possible to hands replace information technology with all sorts of different ideological schemes.
Personally, I practise non approach Tolstoy'southward theory as a set of laws for understanding fine art. More than than anything, "What is art?" is a slice of art itself. A work about the meaning of art and a fertile foundation on which truly cute ideas can flourish.
Most of the paintings used for this article were drawn past realist painter Ilya Repin. The Russian painter created a serial of portraits of Tolstoy, which were exhibited together at the 2019 exhibition "Repin: The Myth of Tolstoy" at the Land Museum 50.N. Tolstoy. More than information regarding the relationship betwixt Tolstoy and Repin can be establish in this commodity .
Who was Tolstoy?
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Leo Tolstoy ( Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) was built-in in 1828 in his family estate of Yasnaya Polyana, some 200km from Moscow. His family unit belonged in the Russian elite and thus Leo inherited the title of count. In 1851 he joined the tsarist army to pay off his accumulated debt but speedily regretted this decision. Eventually, he left the army right subsequently the end of the Crimean War in 1856.
Later on traveling Europe and witnessing the suffering and cruelty of the globe, Tolstoy was transformed. From a privileged blueblood, he became a Christian anarchist arguing against the State and propagating non-violence. This was the doctrine that inspired Gandhi and was expressed as non-resistance to evil. This ways that evil cannot exist fought with evil ways and i should neither take nor resist information technology.
Tolstoy's writing made him famous around the world and he is justly considered amid the four giants of Russian Literature next to Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Turgenev. His most famous novels are War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). However, he also wrote multiple philosophical and theological texts as well as theatrical plays and short stories. Upon completing his masterpiece Anna Karenina , Tolstoy fell into a land of insufferable existential despair.
Charmed by the organized religion of the mutual people, he turned to Christianity. Somewhen, he dismissed the Russian Church building and every other Church as corrupted and looked for his ain answers. His theological explorations led to the conception of his own version of Christianity, which deeply influenced his social vision. He died in 1910 at the age of 82 after suffering from pneumonia.
Fine art Based On Beauty And Taste
Tolstoy wrote "What is art?" in 1897. There, he laid down his opinions on several fine art-related issues. Throughout this essay, he remains confident that he is the first to provide an exact definition for art:
"…withal strange it may seem to say so, in spite of the mountains of books written nigh fine art, no exact definition of art has been constructed. And the reason of this is that the conception of art has been based on the conception of beauty."
So, what is art for Tolstoy? Earlier answering the question, the Russian novelist seeks a proper basis for his definition. Examining works of other philosophers and artists, he notices that they usually assume that beauty is art's foundation. For them beauty is either that which provides a certain kind of pleasure or that which is perfect according to objective, universal laws.
Tolstoy thinks that both cases lead to subjective definitions of beauty and in plough to subjective definitions of art. Those who realize the impossibility of considerately defining beauty, plow to a study of taste asking why a thing pleases. Again, Tolstoy sees no point in this, as taste is also subjective. There is no way of explaining why one thing pleases someone but displeases someone else, he concludes.
Theories that Justify the Canon
Theories of fine art based on dazzler or sense of taste inescapably include only that blazon of art that appeals to sure people:
"Get-go acknowledging a sure set of productions to exist art (because they delight us) and so framing such a theory of fine art that all those productions which please a sure circle of people should fit into information technology."
These theories are made to justify the existing art canon which covers anything from Greek art to Shakespeare and Beethoven. In reality, the catechism is zippo more than the artworks appreciated by the upper classes. To justify new productions that please the elites, new theories that expand and reaffirm the canon are constantly created:
"No thing what insanities appear in art, when in one case they notice credence among the upper classes of our lodge, a theory is speedily invented to explain and sanction them; just equally if there had never been periods in history when certain special circles of people recognized and approved false, deformed, and insensate art which subsequently left no trace and has been utterly forgotten."
The true definition of art, according to Tolstoy, should be based on moral principles. Earlier anything, we need to question if a piece of work of art is moral. If information technology is moral, and so it is adept art. If it is not moral, it is bad. This rationale leads Tolstoy to a very bizarre idea. At 1 signal in his essay, he states that Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliette, Goethe'south Wilhelm Meister, and his own State of war and Peace are immoral and therefore bad art. But what does Tolstoy exactly mean when he says that something is good or bad fine art? And what is the nature of the morality he uses for his artistic judgments?
What is Art?
Fine art is a means of communicating feelings the aforementioned fashion words transmit thoughts. In fine art, someone transmits a feeling and "infects" others with what he/she feels. Tolstoy encapsulates his definition of art in the post-obit passages:
"To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked information technology in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, and so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the aforementioned feeling – this is the activity of art.
Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, past means of certain external signs, hand on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and likewise feel them."
In its essence, art is a means of marriage among men brought together by commonly experienced feelings. It facilitates access to the psychology of others fostering empathy and understanding by violent down the walls of the Subject. This function of art is not only useful merely also necessary for the progress and wellbeing of humanity.
The innumerable feelings experienced past humans both in past and present are available to us only through art. The loss of such a unique power would be a ending. "Men would exist similar beasts", says Tolstoy, and even goes as far as to claim that without fine art, mankind could non be. This is a assuming declaration, which recalls the Nietzschean aphorism that human beingness is justified just as an aesthetic phenomenon.
Fine art in the Extended and Limited Sense of the Discussion
Tolstoy's definition expands to virtually every attribute of homo action way beyond the fine arts. Fifty-fifty a male child telling the story of how he met a wolf can be fine art. That is, however, only if the male child succeeds in making the listeners feel the fear and anguish of the meet. Works of art are everywhere, co-ordinate to this view. Cradlesong, jest, mimicry, house ornament, dress and utensils, even triumphal processions are all works of fine art.
This is, in my view, the strongest point of Tolstoy'south theory. Namely, that it considers about the totality of human activeness every bit art. However, there is a distinction between this expanded fine art, and art in the express sense of the word. The latter corresponds to the fine arts and is the area that Tolstoy investigates farther in his essay. A weak point of the theory is that information technology never examines the act of creation and fine art that is not shared with others.
Real and Apocryphal Art
The stardom between real and counterfeit, good and bad art is Tolstoy's contribution to the field of fine art criticism. Despite its many weaknesses, this system offers an interesting culling to judging and appreciating art.
Tolstoy names real art (i.e. accurate, true to itself) the one resulting from an honest, internal need for expression. The product of this internal urge becomes a real work of art, if it successfully evokes feelings to other people. In this process, the receiver of the artistic impression becomes and so united with the creative person's experience, that he/she feels like the artwork is his/her ain. Therefore, real art removes the barrier between Subject and Object, and between receiver and sender of an creative impression. In addition, it removes the barrier between the receivers who experience unity through a common feeling.
"In this freeing of our personality from its separation and isolation, in this uniting of it with others, lies the principal feature and the groovy bonny force of art."
Furthermore, a work that does not evoke feelings and spiritual spousal relationship with others is apocryphal art. No matter how poetical, realistic, effectful, or interesting it is, it must meet these conditions to succeed. Otherwise it is but a counterfeit posing as existent fine art.
Emotional Infectiousness
Emotional infectiousness is a necessary quality of a work of art. The degree of infectiousness is not always the same simply varies co-ordinate to three conditions:
- The individuality of the feeling transmitted: the more specific to a person the feeling, the more successful the artwork.
- The clearness of the feeling transmitted: the clearness of expression assists the transition of feelings and increases the pleasure derived from art.
- The sincerity of the artist: the force with which the artist feels the emotion he/she transmits through his/her fine art.
Out of all three, sincerity is the most important. Without information technology, the other two weather condition cannot be. Worth noting is that Tolstoy finds sincerity almost e'er present in "peasant art" but near always absent in "upper-class art". If a piece of work lacks fifty-fifty i of the 3 qualities, it is counterfeit art. In contrast, it is existent if information technology possesses all three. In that case, information technology only remains to judge whether this real artwork is good or bad, more or less successful. The success of an artwork is based firstly on the degree of its infectiousness. The more infectious the artwork, the amend.
The Religious Perception of Art
Tolstoy believes that fine art is a ways of progress towards perfection. With fourth dimension, fine art evolves rendering accessible the experience of humanity for humanity'south sake. This is a process of moral realization and results in society becoming kinder and more compassionate. A genuinely practiced artwork ought to make accessible these adept feelings that move humanity closer to its moral completion. Inside this framework, a good work of art must also be moral.
But how tin can we judge what feelings are morally good? Tolstoy's answer lies in what he calls "the religious perception of the age". This is defined as the understanding of the meaning of life as conceived by a group of people. This agreement is the moral compass of a social club and e'er points towards certain values. For Tolstoy, the religious perception of his time is found in Christianity. Equally a issue, all good art must carry the foundational bulletin of this religion understood as brotherhood among all people. This wedlock of human being aiming at his collective well-existence, argues Tolstoy, must be revered as the highest value of all.
Although it relates to religion, religious perception is non the aforementioned with religious cult. In fact, the definition of religious perception is so broad, that it describes ideology in full general. To this interpretation leads Tolstoy'south view that, fifty-fifty if a society recognizes no religion, it e'er has a religious morality. This can be compared with the direction of a flowing river:
If the river flows at all, it must take a direction. If a club lives, there must be a religious perception indicating the management in which, more or less consciously, all its members tend.
Conclusion
It is safety to say that more than a century later on Tolstoy'south death, "What is Fine art?" retains its appeal. We should non easily dismiss the thought that (good) art communicates feelings and promotes unity through universal understanding. This is peculiarly the case in our time where many question art's importance and see it as a source of confusion and division.
Sources
- Tolstoy, Fifty.N. 1902. What is Art? In the Novels and Other Works of Lyof N. Tolstoy . translated by Aline Delano. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 328-527. Available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43409
- Jahn, Thou.R. 1975. 'The Artful Theory of Leo Tolstoy's What Is Art?'. The Periodical of Aesthetics and Art Criticism , Vol. 34, No. ane. pp. 59-65. Available at: https://world wide web.jstor.org/stable/428645
- Morson, Grand.S. 2019. 'Leo Tolstoy'. Encyclopædia Britannica. Bachelor at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leo-Tolstoy
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