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data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-toc.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-toc.unpin">hide</button> </div> <ul class="vector-toc-contents" id="mw-panel-toc-list"> <li id="toc-mw-content-text" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1"> <a href="#" class="vector-toc-link"> <div class="vector-toc-text">(Top)</div> </a> </li> <li id="toc-Evaluating_the_content_of_art" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Evaluating_the_content_of_art"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1</span> <span>Evaluating the content of art</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Evaluating_the_content_of_art-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Christian_art" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Christian_art"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2</span> <span>Christian art</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Christian_art-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Universal_art" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Universal_art"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3</span> <span>Universal art</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Universal_art-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Evaluating_style" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Evaluating_style"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>Evaluating style</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Evaluating_style-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Obscurity_versus_accessibility" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Obscurity_versus_accessibility"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>Obscurity versus accessibility</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Obscurity_versus_accessibility-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Artificiality" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Artificiality"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6</span> <span>Artificiality</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Artificiality-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Artificiality subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Artificiality-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Borrowing" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Borrowing"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6.1</span> <span>Borrowing</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Borrowing-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Imitation" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Imitation"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6.2</span> <span>Imitation</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Imitation-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Effectfulness" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Effectfulness"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6.3</span> <span>Effectfulness</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Effectfulness-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Diversion" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Diversion"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6.4</span> <span>Diversion</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Diversion-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-The_corruption_of_art" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#The_corruption_of_art"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7</span> <span>The corruption of art</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-The_corruption_of_art-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Causes" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Causes"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8</span> <span>Causes</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Causes-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Causes subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Causes-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Church_Christianity_and_the_Renaissance" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Church_Christianity_and_the_Renaissance"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8.1</span> <span>Church Christianity and the Renaissance</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Church_Christianity_and_the_Renaissance-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Aesthetic_theory" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Aesthetic_theory"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8.2</span> <span>Aesthetic theory</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Aesthetic_theory-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Professionalism" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Professionalism"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8.3</span> <span>Professionalism</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Professionalism-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Consequences" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Consequences"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">9</span> <span>Consequences</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Consequences-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Criticism_of_famous_artists" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Criticism_of_famous_artists"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">10</span> <span>Criticism of famous artists</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Criticism_of_famous_artists-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Reception" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Reception"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">11</span> <span>Reception</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Reception-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Editions" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Editions"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">12</span> <span>Editions</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Editions-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Citations" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Citations"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">13</span> <span>Citations</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Citations-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">14</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">15</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-External_links" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#External_links"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">16</span> <span>External links</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-External_links-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-titlebar-toc vector-button-flush-left" title="Table of Contents" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-label" for="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-listBullet mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-listBullet"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Toggle the table of contents</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading"><i>What Is Art?</i></h1> <div id="p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown mw-portlet mw-portlet-lang" > <input type="checkbox" id="p-lang-btn-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox mw-interlanguage-selector" aria-label="Go to an article in another language. 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mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%87%D9%86%D8%B1_%DA%86%DB%8C%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%9F" title="هنر چیست؟ – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="هنر چیست؟" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>فارسی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%98%88%EC%88%A0%EC%9D%B4%EB%9E%80_%EB%AC%B4%EC%97%87%EC%9D%B8%EA%B0%80%3F" title="예술이란 무엇인가? – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="예술이란 무엇인가?" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_cos%27%C3%A8_l%27arte%3F" title="Che cos'è l'arte? – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="Che cos'è l'arte?" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pa mw-list-item"><a href="https://pa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A8%95%E0%A8%B2%E0%A8%BE_%E0%A8%95%E0%A9%80_%E0%A8%B9%E0%A9%88%3F" title="ਕਲਾ ਕੀ ਹੈ? – Punjabi" lang="pa" hreflang="pa" data-title="ਕਲਾ ਕੀ ਹੈ?" data-language-autonym="ਪੰਜਾਬੀ" data-language-local-name="Punjabi" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>ਪੰਜਾਬੀ</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ro mw-list-item"><a href="https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ce_este_arta%3F" title="Ce este arta? – Romanian" lang="ro" hreflang="ro" data-title="Ce este arta?" data-language-autonym="Română" data-language-local-name="Romanian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Română</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A7%D1%82%D0%BE_%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE%3F" title="Что такое искусство? – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Что такое искусство?" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fi mw-list-item"><a href="https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mit%C3%A4_on_taide%3F" title="Mitä on taide? – Finnish" lang="fi" hreflang="fi" data-title="Mitä on taide?" data-language-autonym="Suomi" data-language-local-name="Finnish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Suomi</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tr mw-list-item"><a href="https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanat_Nedir%3F" title="Sanat Nedir? – Turkish" lang="tr" hreflang="tr" data-title="Sanat Nedir?" data-language-autonym="Türkçe" data-language-local-name="Turkish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Türkçe</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uk mw-list-item"><a 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id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div> </div> <div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">1898 book by Leo Tolstoy</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">This article is about a book by <a href="/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy" title="Leo Tolstoy">Leo Tolstoy</a>. For the general topic of defining "art" and determining what counts as art, see <a href="/wiki/Classificatory_disputes_about_art" title="Classificatory disputes about art">classificatory disputes about art</a>.</div> <p> <i><b>What Is Art?</b></i> (<a href="/wiki/Russian_language" title="Russian language">Russian</a>: <span lang="ru">Что такое искусство?</span> <i>Chto takoye iskusstvo?</i>) is a book by <a href="/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy" title="Leo Tolstoy">Leo Tolstoy</a>. It was completed in Russian in 1897 but first published in English in 1898 due to difficulties with the Russian censors.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Tolstoy cites the time, effort, public funds, and public respect spent on art and artists<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> as well as the imprecision of general opinions on art<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> as reason for writing the book. In his words, "it is difficult to say what is meant by art, and especially what is good, useful art, art for the sake of which we might condone such sacrifices as are being offered at its shrine".<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Throughout the book Tolstoy demonstrates an "unremitting moralism",<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> evaluating artworks in light of his radical Christian ethics,<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and displaying a willingness to dismiss accepted masters, including <a href="/wiki/Wagner" class="mw-redirect" title="Wagner">Wagner</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Shakespeare" class="mw-redirect" title="Shakespeare">Shakespeare</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and <a href="/wiki/Dante" class="mw-redirect" title="Dante">Dante</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> as well as the bulk of his own writings.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Having rejected the use of beauty in definitions of art (see <a href="/wiki/Aesthetics" title="Aesthetics">aesthetics</a>), Tolstoy conceptualises art as anything that communicates emotion: "Art begins when a man, with the purpose of communicating to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again within himself and expresses it by certain external signs".<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>This view of art is inclusive: "jokes", "home decoration", and "church services" may all be considered art as long as they convey feeling.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> It is also amoral: "[f]eelings<span class="nowrap"> </span>... very bad and very good, if only they infect the reader<span class="nowrap"> </span>... constitute the subject of art".<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._39_13-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._39-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Tolstoy also notes that the "sincerity" of the artist – that is, the extent to which the artist "experiences the feeling he conveys" – influences the infection.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Evaluating_the_content_of_art">Evaluating the content of art</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Evaluating the content of art"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>While Tolstoy's basic conception of art is broad<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and amoral,<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._39_13-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._39-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> his idea of "good" art is strict and moralistic, based on what he sees as the function of art in the development of humanity: </p> <blockquote><p>just as in the evolution of knowledge – that is, the forcing out and supplanting of mistaken and unnecessary knowledge by truer and more necessary knowledge – so the evolution of feelings takes place by means of art, replacing lower feelings, less kind and less needed for the good of humanity, by kinder feelings, more needed for that good. This is the purpose of art.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Christian_art">Christian art</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Christian art"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Tolstoy's analysis is influenced by his radical Christian views (see <i><a href="/wiki/The_Kingdom_of_God_is_Within_You" class="mw-redirect" title="The Kingdom of God is Within You">The Kingdom of God is Within You</a></i>), views which led him to be excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> He states that Christian art, rooted in "the consciousness of sonship to God and the brotherhood of men":<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._130_18-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._130-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <blockquote><p>can evoke reverence for each man's dignity, for every animal’s life, it can evoke the shame of luxury, of violence, of revenge, of using for one’s pleasure objects that are a necessity for other people, it can make people sacrifice themselves to serve others freely and joyfully, without noticing it.<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._166_19-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._166-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote> <p>Ultimately, "by calling up the feelings of brotherhood and love in people under imaginary conditions, religious art will accustom people to experiencing the same feelings in reality under the same conditions".<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._166_19-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._166-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Tolstoy's examples: <a href="/wiki/Schiller" class="mw-redirect" title="Schiller">Schiller</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/The_Robbers" title="The Robbers">The Robbers</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/Victor_Hugo" title="Victor Hugo">Victor Hugo</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables" title="Les Misérables">Les Misérables</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/Charles_Dickens" title="Charles Dickens">Charles Dickens</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities" title="A Tale of Two Cities">A Tale of Two Cities</a></i> and <i><a href="/wiki/The_Chimes" title="The Chimes">The Chimes</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe" title="Harriet Beecher Stowe">Harriet Beecher Stowe</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Uncle_Tom%27s_Cabin" title="Uncle Tom's Cabin">Uncle Tom's Cabin</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/Dostoevsky" class="mw-redirect" title="Dostoevsky">Dostoevsky</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/The_House_of_the_Dead_(novel)" title="The House of the Dead (novel)">The House of the Dead</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/George_Eliot" title="George Eliot">George Eliot</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Adam_Bede" title="Adam Bede">Adam Bede</a></i>,<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._132_20-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._132-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Nikolai_Ge" title="Nikolai Ge">Ge's</a> <i>Judgement</i>, <a href="/wiki/S%C3%A1ndor_Liezen-Mayer" title="Sándor Liezen-Mayer">Liezen-Mayer's</a> <i>Signing the Death Sentence</i>, and paintings "portraying the labouring man with respect and love" such as those by <a href="/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet" title="Jean-François Millet">Millet</a>, <a href="/wiki/Jules_Breton" title="Jules Breton">Breton</a>, <a href="/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Augustin_Lhermitte" class="mw-redirect" title="Léon Augustin Lhermitte">Lhermitte</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Franz_Defregger" title="Franz Defregger">Defregger</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._133_21-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._133-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Universal_art">Universal art</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Universal art"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>"Universal" art<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._132_20-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._132-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> illustrates that people are "already united in the oneness of life's joys and sorrows"<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> by communicating "feelings of the simplest, most everyday sort, accessible to all people without exception, such as the feelings of merriment, tenderness, cheerfulness, peacefulness, and so on".<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._130_18-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._130-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Tolstoy contrasts this ideal with art that is partisan in nature, whether it be by class, religion, nation, or style.<sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Tolstoy's examples: he mentions, with many qualifiers, the works of <a href="/wiki/Cervantes" class="mw-redirect" title="Cervantes">Cervantes</a>, <a href="/wiki/Dickens" class="mw-redirect" title="Dickens">Dickens</a>, <a href="/wiki/Moliere" class="mw-redirect" title="Moliere">Moliere</a>, <a href="/wiki/Gogol" class="mw-redirect" title="Gogol">Gogol</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Pushkin" class="mw-redirect" title="Pushkin">Pushkin</a>, comparing all of these unfavourably to the story of <a href="/wiki/Joseph_(son_of_Jacob)" class="mw-redirect" title="Joseph (son of Jacob)">Joseph</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._133_21-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._133-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In music he commends a violin aria of <a href="/wiki/Bach" class="mw-redirect" title="Bach">Bach</a>, the <a href="/wiki/Nocturnes,_Op._9_(Chopin)" title="Nocturnes, Op. 9 (Chopin)">E-flat major nocturne</a> of Chopin, and "selected passages" from <a href="/wiki/Schubert" class="mw-redirect" title="Schubert">Schubert</a>, <a href="/wiki/Haydn" class="mw-redirect" title="Haydn">Haydn</a>, Chopin, and <a href="/wiki/Mozart" class="mw-redirect" title="Mozart">Mozart</a>. He also speaks briefly of <a href="/wiki/Genre_paintings" class="mw-redirect" title="Genre paintings">genre paintings</a> and <a href="/wiki/Landscape_painting" title="Landscape painting">landscapes</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._135_24-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._135-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Evaluating_style">Evaluating style</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Evaluating style"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1251242444">.mw-parser-output .ambox{border:1px solid #a2a9b1;border-left:10px solid #36c;background-color:#fbfbfb;box-sizing:border-box}.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+link+.ambox{margin-top:-1px}html body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .ambox.mbox-small-left{margin:4px 1em 4px 0;overflow:hidden;width:238px;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em}.mw-parser-output .ambox-speedy{border-left:10px solid #b32424;background-color:#fee7e6}.mw-parser-output .ambox-delete{border-left:10px solid #b32424}.mw-parser-output .ambox-content{border-left:10px solid #f28500}.mw-parser-output .ambox-style{border-left:10px solid #fc3}.mw-parser-output .ambox-move{border-left:10px solid #9932cc}.mw-parser-output .ambox-protection{border-left:10px solid #a2a9b1}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-text{border:none;padding:0.25em 0.5em;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image{border:none;padding:2px 0 2px 0.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-imageright{border:none;padding:2px 0.5em 2px 0;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-empty-cell{border:none;padding:0;width:1px}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image-div{width:52px}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .ambox{margin:0 10%}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .ambox{display:none!important}}</style><table class="box-Empty_section plainlinks metadata ambox mbox-small-left ambox-content" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="[icon]" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg/20px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png" decoding="async" width="20" height="14" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg/30px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg/40px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="44" data-file-height="31" /></a></span></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span"><b>This section is empty.</b> You can help by <a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=">adding to it</a>. <span class="date-container"><i>(<span class="date">August 2014</span>)</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Obscurity_versus_accessibility">Obscurity versus accessibility</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Obscurity versus accessibility"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Tolstoy notes the susceptibility of his contemporaries to the "charm of obscurity".<sup id="cite_ref-:1_25-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:1-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Works have become laden with "euphemisms, mythological and historical allusions", and general "vagueness, mysteriousness, obscurity and inaccessibility to the masses".<sup id="cite_ref-:1_25-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:1-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Tolstoy lambastes such works, insisting that art can and should be comprehensible to everyone. Having emphasised that art has a function in the improvement of humanity – capable of expressing man's best sentiment – he finds it offensive that artists should be so wilfully and arrogantly abstruse.<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-26"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>26<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Artificiality">Artificiality</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Artificiality"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>One criticism Tolstoy levels against art is that at some point it "ceased to be sincere and became artificial and cerebral",<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-27"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> leading to the creation of millions of works of technical brilliance but few of honourable sentiment.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_28-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Tolstoy outlines four common markers of bad art: these are not however considered the canon or ultimate indicators </p> <ol><li>Borrowing</li> <li>Imitation</li> <li>Effectfulness</li> <li>Diversion<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._84_29-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._84-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ol> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Borrowing">Borrowing</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Borrowing"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Involves recycling and concentrating elements from other works,<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._84_29-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._84-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> typical examples of which are: "maidens, warriors, shepherds, hermits, angels, devils in all forms, moonlight, thunderstorms, mountains, the sea, precipices, flowers, long hair, lions, the lamb, the dove, the nightingale".<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-30"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>30<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Imitation">Imitation</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Imitation"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Imitation is highly descriptive realism, where painting becomes photography, or a scene in a book becomes a listing of facial expressions, tone of voice, the setting, and so on.<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._86_31-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._86-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Any potential communication of feeling is "disrupted by the superfluity of details".<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>32<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Effectfulness">Effectfulness</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: Effectfulness"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Reliance on "strikingness", often involving contrasts of "horrible and tender, beautiful and ugly, loud and soft, dark and light", descriptions of lust,<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._86_31-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._86-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> "crescendo and complication", unexpected changes in rhythm, tempo, etc.<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._87_33-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._87-33"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>33<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Tolstoy contends that works marked by such techniques "do not convey any feeling, but only affect the nerves".<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-34"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>34<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Diversion">Diversion</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: Diversion"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Diversion is "an intellectual interest added to the work of art", such as the melding of documentary and fiction, as well as the writing of novels, poetry, and music "in such a way that they must be puzzled out".<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._87_33-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._87-33"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>33<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> All such works do not correspond with Tolstoy's view of art as the infection of others with feelings previously experienced,<sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-35"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>35<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and his exhortation that art be "universal" in appeal.<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._135_24-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._135-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="The_corruption_of_art">The corruption of art</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: The corruption of art"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1251242444" /><table class="box-Empty_section plainlinks metadata ambox mbox-small-left ambox-content" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="[icon]" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg/20px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png" decoding="async" width="20" height="14" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg/30px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg/40px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="44" data-file-height="31" /></a></span></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span"><b>This section is empty.</b> You can help by <a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=">adding to it</a>. <span class="date-container"><i>(<span class="date">August 2014</span>)</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Causes">Causes</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: Causes"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Church_Christianity_and_the_Renaissance">Church Christianity and the Renaissance</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=13" title="Edit section: Church Christianity and the Renaissance"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Tolstoy approves of early Christian art for being inspired by love of Christ and man, as well as its antagonism to pleasure-seeking. He prefers this to the art born of "Church Christianity", which ostensibly evades the "essential theses of true Christianity" (that is, that all men are born of the Father, are equals, and should strive towards mutual love).<sup id="cite_ref-:2_36-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:2-36"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>36<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Art became pagan – worshipping religious figures – and subservient to the dictates of the Church.<sup id="cite_ref-:2_36-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:2-36"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>36<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The corruption of art was deepened after the <a href="/wiki/Crusades" title="Crusades">Crusades</a>, as the abuse of papal power became more obvious. The rich began to doubt, seeing contradictions between the actions of the Church and the message of Christianity.<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-37"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>37<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> But instead of turning back to the early Christian teachings, the upper classes began to appreciate and commission art that was merely pleasing.<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-38"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>38<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This tendency was facilitated by the <a href="/wiki/Renaissance" title="Renaissance">Renaissance</a>, with the aggrandisement of ancient Greek art, philosophy, and culture which, Tolstoy alleges, is inclined to pleasure and beauty worship.<sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-39"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>39<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Aesthetic_theory">Aesthetic theory</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=14" title="Edit section: Aesthetic theory"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Tolstoy perceives the roots of <a href="/wiki/Aesthetics" title="Aesthetics">aesthetics</a> in the Renaissance. Art for pleasure was validated in reference to the philosophy of the Greeks<sup id="cite_ref-40" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-40"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>40<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-41"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>41<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and the elevation of “beauty” as a legitimate criterion with which to separate good from bad art.<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._53_42-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._53-42"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>42<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Tolstoy moves to discredit aesthetics by reviewing and reducing previous theories – including those of <a href="/wiki/Alexander_Gottlieb_Baumgarten" title="Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten">Baumgarten</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-43"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>43<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Kant" class="mw-redirect" title="Kant">Kant</a><sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-44"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>44<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> (<a href="/wiki/Critique_of_Judgment" title="Critique of Judgment">Critique of Judgement</a>), <a href="/wiki/Hegel" class="mw-redirect" title="Hegel">Hegel</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-45" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-45"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>45<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/David_Hume" title="David Hume">Hume</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Schopenhauer" class="mw-redirect" title="Schopenhauer">Schopenhauer</a><sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-46"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>46<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> – to two main “aesthetic definitions of beauty”:<sup id="cite_ref-:3_47-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:3-47"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>47<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <ol><li>The "objective" or "mystical" definition of beauty<sup id="cite_ref-:3_47-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:3-47"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>47<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> in which beauty is "something absolutely perfect which exists outside us",<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._32_48-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._32-48"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>48<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> whether it be associated with "idea, spirit, will, God"<sup id="cite_ref-:3_47-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:3-47"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>47<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>The "subjective" definition of beauty, in which "beauty is a certain pleasure we experience, which does not have personal advantage as its aim".<sup id="cite_ref-:3_47-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:3-47"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>47<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This definition tends to be more inclusive, enabling things like food and fabric to be called art<sup id="cite_ref-:3_47-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:3-47"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>47<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ol> <p>Tolstoy then argues that, despite their apparent divergence, there is little substantive difference between the two strands. This is because both schools recognise beauty only by the pleasure it gives: "both notions of beauty come down to a certain sort of pleasure that we receive, meaning that we recognize as beauty that which pleases us without awakening our lust".<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._32_48-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._32-48"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>48<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Therefore, there is no objective definition of art in aesthetics.<sup id="cite_ref-49" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-49"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>49<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Tolstoy condemns the focus on beauty/pleasure at length, calling aesthetics a discipline: </p> <blockquote><p>according to which the difference between good art, conveying good feelings, and bad art, conveying wicked feelings, was totally obliterated, and one of the lowest manifestations of art, art for mere pleasure – against which all teachers of mankind have warned people – came to be regarded as the highest art. And art became, not the important thing it was intended to be, but the empty amusement of idle people.<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._53_42-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._53-42"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>42<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Professionalism">Professionalism</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=15" title="Edit section: Professionalism"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Tolstoy sees the developing professionalism of art as hampering the creation of good works. </p><p>The professional artist can and must create to prosper, making for art that is insincere and most likely partisan – made to suit the whims of fashion or <a href="/wiki/Patrons" class="mw-redirect" title="Patrons">patrons</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-50" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-50"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>50<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Art criticism is a symptom of the obscurity of art, for "[a]n artist, if he is a true artist, has in his work conveyed to others the feelings he has experienced: what is there to explain?".<sup id="cite_ref-51" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-51"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>51<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Criticism, moreover, tends to contribute to the veneration of "authorities"<sup id="cite_ref-52" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-52"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>52<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> such as <a href="/wiki/Shakespeare" class="mw-redirect" title="Shakespeare">Shakespeare</a> and <a href="/wiki/Dante" class="mw-redirect" title="Dante">Dante</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-53" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-53"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>53<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> By constant unfavourable comparison, the young artist is corralled into imitating the works of the greats, as all of them are said to be true art. In short, new artists imitate the classics, setting their own feelings aside, which, according to Tolstoy, is contrary to the point of art.<sup id="cite_ref-54" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-54"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>54<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Art schools teach people how to imitate the method of the masters, but they cannot teach the sincerity of emotion that is the propellant of great works.<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._98_55-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._98-55"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>55<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In Tolstoy's words, "[n]o school can call up feelings in a man, and still less can it teach a man what is the essence of art: the manifestation of feeling in his own particular fashion".<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._98_55-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._98-55"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>55<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Consequences">Consequences</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=16" title="Edit section: Consequences"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ol><li>"[T]he enormous waste of working people's labour",<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._139_56-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._139-56"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>56<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> with individuals spending so much time contemplating and creating bad art that they become "incapable of anything that is really necessary for people"<sup id="cite_ref-57" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-57"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>57<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>The volume of art produced provides "the amusement which turns these people's eyes from the meaninglessness of their lives and saves them from the boredom that oppresses them", it enables them "to go on living without noticing the meaninglessness and cruelty of their life"<sup id="cite_ref-58" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-58"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>58<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>The confusion and perversion of values. It becomes normal to worship not great religious figures but people who write incomprehensible poems<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._143_59-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._143-59"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>59<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>The worship of beauty legitimises the disregarding of morality as a criterion for evaluating cultural products<sup id="cite_ref-:0_28-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>Modern art "direct corrupts people" by infecting them with feelings of superstition, patriotism, and sensuality<sup id="cite_ref-60" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-60"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>60<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ol> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Criticism_of_famous_artists">Criticism of famous artists</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=17" title="Edit section: Criticism of famous artists"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Throughout the book Tolstoy demonstrates a willingness to dismiss generally accepted masters, among them <a href="/wiki/Liszt" class="mw-redirect" title="Liszt">Liszt</a>, <a href="/wiki/Richard_Strauss" title="Richard Strauss">Richard Strauss</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._139_56-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._139-56"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>56<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Nietzsche" class="mw-redirect" title="Nietzsche">Nietzsche</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._143_59-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._143-59"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>59<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and <a href="/wiki/Oscar_Wilde" title="Oscar Wilde">Oscar Wilde</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_28-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> He also labels his own works as "bad art", excepting only the short stories "<a href="/wiki/God_Sees_the_Truth,_But_Waits" title="God Sees the Truth, But Waits">God Sees the Truth</a>" and "Prisoner of the Caucasus".<sup id="cite_ref-61" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-61"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>61<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>He attempts to justify these conclusions by pointing to the ostensible chaos of previous aesthetic analysis. Theories usually involve selecting popular works and constructing principles from these examples. <a href="/wiki/Johannes_Volkelt" title="Johannes Volkelt">Volkelt</a>, for instance, remarks that art cannot be judged on its moral content because then <i><a href="/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet" title="Romeo and Juliet">Romeo and Juliet</a></i> would not be good art. Such retrospective justification cannot, he stresses, be the basis for theory, as people will tend to create subjective frameworks to justify their own tastes.<sup id="cite_ref-62" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-62"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>62<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Reception">Reception</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=18" title="Edit section: Reception"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Jahn notes the "often confusing use of categorisation"<sup id="cite_ref-63" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-63"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>63<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and the lack of definition of the key concept of emotion.<sup id="cite_ref-64" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-64"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>64<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Bayley writes that "the effectiveness of <i>What is Art?</i> lies not so much in its positive assertions as in its rejection of much that was taken for granted in the aesthetic theories of the time".<sup id="cite_ref-65" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-65"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>65<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Noyes criticises Tolstoy's dismissal of beauty,<sup id="cite_ref-66" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-66"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>66<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> but states that, "despite its shortcomings", <i>What is Art?</i> "may be pronounced the most stimulating critical work of our time".<sup id="cite_ref-67" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-67"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>67<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Simmons mentions the "occasional brilliant passages" along with the "repetition, awkward language, and loose terminology".<sup id="cite_ref-68" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-68"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>68<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Aylmer_Maude" class="mw-redirect" title="Aylmer Maude">Aylmer Maude</a>, translator of many of Tolstoy's writings, calls it "probably the most masterly of all Tolstoy's works", citing the difficulty of the subject matter and its clarity.<sup id="cite_ref-69" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-69"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>69<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> For a comprehensive review of the reception at the time of publication, see Maude 1901<i>b</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-70" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-70"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>70<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Editions">Editions</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=19" title="Edit section: Editions"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li>Tolstoy, Leo (1995 [1897]). <i>What is Art?</i> (Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky). London: Penguin.</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Citations">Citations</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=20" title="Edit section: Citations"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Simmons, Ernest (1973). <i>What is Art?</i>, in <i>Tolstoy</i>. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. p. 178.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy, Leo (1995 [1897]). <i>What is Art?</i> (Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky). London: Penguin. pp. 3–4.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], pp. 9–13.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 9.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFJahn1975" class="citation journal cs1">Jahn, Gary R. (1975). "The aesthetic theory of Leo Tolstoy's <i>What is Art?</i>". <i>Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism</i>. <b>34</b> (1): 59.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Journal+of+Aesthetics+and+Art+Criticism&rft.atitle=The+aesthetic+theory+of+Leo+Tolstoy%27s+What+is+Art%3F&rft.volume=34&rft.issue=1&rft.pages=59&rft.date=1975&rft.aulast=Jahn&rft.aufirst=Gary+R.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AWhat+Is+Art%3F" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Jahn 1975, p. 63.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], pp. 101–12.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], pp. 33–4, 137.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 95, 137.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], pp. 197–198.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 38.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 41, Jahn 1975, p. 60.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._39-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._39_13-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._39_13-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 39.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 121, 93, 99–100.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 41.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-16">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], pp. 123–4.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-17">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Pevear, Richard (1995). "Preface" in Tolstoy, Leo (1995 [1897]). <i>What is Art?</i> (Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky ed.). London: Penguin. p, xxii. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780140446425" title="Special:BookSources/9780140446425">9780140446425</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._130-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._130_18-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._130_18-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 130.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._166-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._166_19-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._166_19-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 166.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._132-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._132_20-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._132_20-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 132.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._133-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._133_21-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._133_21-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 133.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-22">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 131.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-23">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 134, 136, 152.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._135-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._135_24-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._135_24-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 135.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-:1-25"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-:1_25-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:1_25-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 63.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-26">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 43, 47, 63–84, 123–4.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-27"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-27">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 59.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-:0-28"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-:0_28-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:0_28-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:0_28-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 144.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._84-29"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._84_29-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._84_29-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 84.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-30"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-30">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 85.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._86-31"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._86_31-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._86_31-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 86.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-32"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-32">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 88.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._87-33"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._87_33-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._87_33-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 87.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-34"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-34">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 89.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-35"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-35">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 90.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-:2-36"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-:2_36-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:2_36-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 44.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-37"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-37">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 45, 147.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-38"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-38">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 46-8.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-39"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-39">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], pp. 46–50.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-40"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-40">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 50.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-41"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-41">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Noyes, George (1918). <i>Tolstoy</i>. London: Duffield, p. 330.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._53-42"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._53_42-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._53_42-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 53.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-43"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-43">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 17, 30.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-44"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-44">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], pp. 20–1.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-45"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-45">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 23.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-46"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-46">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], pp. 24–5.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-:3-47"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-:3_47-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:3_47-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:3_47-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:3_47-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:3_47-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 31.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._32-48"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._32_48-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._32_48-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 32.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-49"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-49">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 33.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-50"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-50">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], pp. 93–4.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-51"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-51">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 94.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-52"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-52">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 95.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-53"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-53">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 96.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-54"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-54">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], pp. 95–6, 121.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._98-55"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._98_55-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._98_55-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 98.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._139-56"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._139_56-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._139_56-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 139.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-57"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-57">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 140.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-58"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-58">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 141.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._143-59"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._143_59-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Tolstoy_1995_1897,_p._143_59-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 143.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-60"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-60">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 145.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-61"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-61">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], pp. 197–8.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-62"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-62">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tolstoy 1995 [1897], p. 33-4.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-63"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-63">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Jahn 1975, p. 59.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-64"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-64">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Jahn 1975, pp. 61–2</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-65"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-65">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Bayley, John (1986 [1966]). <i>What is Art?</i> – excerpt from <i>Tolstoy and the Novel</i> in Bloom, Harold (ed.). <i>Leo Tolstoy</i>. New York: Chelsea House. p. 147.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-66"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-66">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Noyes 1918, p. 326.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-67"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-67">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Noyes 1918, p. 340.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-68"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-68">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Simmons 1973, p. 185.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-69"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-69">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Maude, Aylmer (1901<i>a</i>). "<i>What is Art?</i> – An Introduction", in Tolstoy and his problems: essays. London: Grant Richards. p. 73.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-70"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-70">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Maude, Aylmer (1901<i>b</i>). "<i>What is Art?</i> – Tolstoy's Theory of Art", in Tolstoy and his problems: essays. London: Grant Richards. pp. 102–127.</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=21" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy_bibliography" title="Leo Tolstoy bibliography">Leo Tolstoy bibliography</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=22" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li>Bayley, John (1986 [1966]). "<i>What is Art?</i> – excerpt from Tolstoy and the Novel" in Bloom, Harold (ed.). Leo Tolstoy. New York: Chelsea House. p. 141–152.</li> <li>Jahn, Gary R. (1975). "The aesthetic theory of Leo Tolstoy's <i>What is Art?</i>". <i>Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism</i> 34 (1): 59–65.</li> <li>Maude, Aylmer (1901a). “<i>What is Art?</i> – An Introduction”, in Tolstoy and his problems: essays. London: Grant Richards. pp. 66–101.</li> <li>Maude, Aylmer (1901b). “<i>What is Art?</i> – Tolstoy’s Theory of Art”, in Tolstoy and his problems: essays. London: Grant Richards. pp. 102–127.</li> <li>Noyes, George (1918). Tolstoy. London: Duffield.</li> <li>Pevear, Richard (1995). "Preface" in Tolstoy, Leo (1995 [1897]). <i>What is Art?</i> (Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky). London: Penguin.</li> <li>Simmons, Ernest (1973). <i>What is Art?</i>, in Tolstoy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 175–189.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/David_Hume" title="David Hume">Hume</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Critique_of_Judgment" title="Critique of Judgment">Critique of Judgement</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=What_Is_Art%3F&action=edit&section=23" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li>Excerpts <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://home.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/361r14.html"><i>What is Art?</i> excerpts</a></li></ul></li> <li>Complete Text Online <ul><li><i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/leo-tolstoy/what-is-art/aylmer-maude">What Is Art?</a></i> at <a href="/wiki/Standard_Ebooks" title="Standard Ebooks">Standard Ebooks</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=10087"><i>What is Art?</i></a>, from RevoltLib.com</li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/tolstoy/1897/what-is-art/index.html"><i>What is Art?</i></a>, from Marxists.org</li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/leo-tolstoy-what-is-art"><i>What is Art?</i></a>, from TheAnarchistLibrary.org</li></ul></li></ul> <div class="navbox-styles"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output .hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul{margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt,.mw-parser-output .hlist li{margin:0;display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ol,.mw-parser-output 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title="Historicism (art)">Historicism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Marxist_aesthetics" title="Marxist aesthetics">Marxism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Modernism" title="Modernism">Modernism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Postmodernism" title="Postmodernism">Postmodernism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Psychoanalytic_theory" title="Psychoanalytic theory">Psychoanalysis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Aesthetic_Realism" title="Aesthetic Realism">Realism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Romanticism" title="Romanticism">Romanticism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Symbolism_(arts)" class="mw-redirect" title="Symbolism (arts)">Symbolism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Theosophy_and_visual_arts" title="Theosophy and visual arts">Theosophy</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/List_of_art_movements" title="List of art movements">more...</a></i></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Philosophers</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd wraplinks" 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A. Richards">Richards</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/John_Ruskin" title="John Ruskin">Ruskin</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/George_Santayana" title="George Santayana">Santayana</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Friedrich_Schiller" title="Friedrich Schiller">Schiller</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer" title="Arthur Schopenhauer">Schopenhauer</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Roger_Scruton" title="Roger Scruton">Scruton</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore" title="Rabindranath Tagore">Tagore</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jun%27ichir%C5%8D_Tanizaki" title="Jun'ichirō Tanizaki">Tanizaki</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Giorgio_Vasari" title="Giorgio Vasari">Vasari</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Oscar_Wilde" title="Oscar Wilde">Wilde</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Johann_Joachim_Winckelmann" title="Johann Joachim Winckelmann">Winckelmann</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/List_of_aestheticians" title="List of aestheticians">more...</a></i></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Concepts</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even wraplinks" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Appropriation_(art)" title="Appropriation (art)">Appropriation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Art_for_art%27s_sake" title="Art for art's sake">Art for art's sake</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Art_manifesto" title="Art manifesto">Art manifesto</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Artistic_merit" title="Artistic merit">Artistic merit</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Avant-garde" title="Avant-garde">Avant-garde</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Beauty" title="Beauty">Beauty</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Feminine_beauty_ideal" title="Feminine beauty ideal">Feminine</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Masculine_beauty_ideal" title="Masculine beauty ideal">Masculine</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Camp_(style)" title="Camp (style)">Camp</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Comedy" title="Comedy">Comedy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Creativity" title="Creativity">Creativity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cuteness" title="Cuteness">Cuteness</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Depiction" title="Depiction">Depiction</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Disgust" title="Disgust">Disgust</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ecstasy_(philosophy)" title="Ecstasy (philosophy)">Ecstasy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Elegance" title="Elegance">Elegance</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Aesthetic_emotions" title="Aesthetic emotions">Emotions</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Entertainment" title="Entertainment">Entertainment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Eroticism" title="Eroticism">Eroticism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fashion" title="Fashion">Fashion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gaze" title="Gaze">Gaze</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Harmony" title="Harmony">Harmony</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Humour" title="Humour">Humour</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Aesthetic_interpretation" title="Aesthetic interpretation">Interpretation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Judgment" class="mw-redirect" title="Judgment">Judgment</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Kama" title="Kama">Kama</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kitsch" title="Kitsch">Kitsch</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Life_imitating_art" title="Life imitating art">Life imitating art</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Magnificence_(history_of_ideas)" title="Magnificence (history of ideas)">Magnificence</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mimesis" title="Mimesis">Mimesis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Perception" title="Perception">Perception</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Picturesque" title="Picturesque">Picturesque</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quality_(philosophy)" title="Quality (philosophy)">Quality</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Rasa_(aesthetics)" title="Rasa (aesthetics)">Rasa</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Recreation" title="Recreation">Recreation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reverence_(emotion)" title="Reverence (emotion)">Reverence</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Style_(visual_arts)" title="Style (visual arts)">Style</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sublime_(philosophy)" title="Sublime (philosophy)">Sublime</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Taste_(sociology)" class="mw-redirect" title="Taste (sociology)">Taste</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tragedy" title="Tragedy">Tragedy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Work_of_art" title="Work of art">Work of art</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Works</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd wraplinks" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/Hippias_Major" title="Hippias Major">Hippias Major</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(c. 390 BC)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Poetics_(Aristotle)" title="Poetics (Aristotle)">Poetics</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(c. 335 BC)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Literary_Mind_and_the_Carving_of_Dragons" title="The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons">The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(c. 100)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/On_the_Sublime" title="On the Sublime">On the Sublime</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(c. 500)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/A_Philosophical_Enquiry_into_the_Origin_of_Our_Ideas_of_the_Sublime_and_Beautiful" title="A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful">A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1757)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Lectures_on_Aesthetics" title="Lectures on Aesthetics">Lectures on Aesthetics</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1835)</span></li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Critic_as_Artist" title="The Critic as Artist">The Critic as Artist</a>" <span style="font-size:85%;">(1891)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/In_Praise_of_Shadows" title="In Praise of Shadows">In Praise of Shadows</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1933)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Art_as_Experience" title="Art as Experience">Art as Experience</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1934)</span></li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Work_of_Art_in_the_Age_of_Mechanical_Reproduction" title="The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction">The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction</a>" <span style="font-size:85%;">(1935)</span></li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Avant-Garde_and_Kitsch" title="Avant-Garde and Kitsch">Avant-Garde and Kitsch</a>" <span style="font-size:85%;">(1939)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Critical_Essays_(Orwell)" title="Critical Essays (Orwell)">Critical Essays</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1946)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Aesthetic_Dimension" title="The Aesthetic Dimension">The Aesthetic Dimension</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1977)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Why_Beauty_Matters" title="Why Beauty Matters">Why Beauty Matters</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(2009)</span></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Related</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even wraplinks" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Aestheticization_of_politics" title="Aestheticization of politics">Aestheticization of politics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Applied_aesthetics" title="Applied aesthetics">Applied aesthetics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Arts_criticism" title="Arts criticism">Arts criticism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Axiology" class="mw-redirect" title="Axiology">Axiology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Evolutionary_aesthetics" title="Evolutionary aesthetics">Evolutionary aesthetics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mathematical_beauty" title="Mathematical beauty">Mathematical beauty</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Neuroesthetics" title="Neuroesthetics">Neuroesthetics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Patterns_in_nature" title="Patterns in nature">Patterns in nature</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Philosophy_of_design" title="Philosophy of design">Philosophy of design</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Philosophy_of_film" title="Philosophy of film">Philosophy of film</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Philosophy_of_music" title="Philosophy of music">Philosophy of music</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Psychology_of_art" title="Psychology of art">Psychology of art</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Theory_of_art" title="Theory of art">Theory of art</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="2"><div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Index_of_aesthetics_articles" title="Index of aesthetics articles">Index</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Outline_of_aesthetics" title="Outline of aesthetics">Outline</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Category:Aesthetics" title="Category:Aesthetics">Category</a></li> <li><span class="nowrap"><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Socrates.png/18px-Socrates.png" decoding="async" width="18" height="28" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Socrates.png/27px-Socrates.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Socrates.png/36px-Socrates.png 2x" data-file-width="326" data-file-height="500" /></span></span> </span><a href="/wiki/Portal:Philosophy" title="Portal:Philosophy">Philosophy portal</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374" /><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236075235" /></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Leo_Tolstoy259" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="2"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374" /><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231" /><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Leo_Tolstoy" title="Template:Leo Tolstoy"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Leo_Tolstoy" title="Template talk:Leo Tolstoy"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Leo_Tolstoy" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Leo Tolstoy"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Leo_Tolstoy259" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy" title="Leo Tolstoy">Leo Tolstoy</a></div></th></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="2"><div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy_bibliography" title="Leo Tolstoy bibliography">Bibliography</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Novels</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/Childhood_(Tolstoy_novel)" title="Childhood (Tolstoy novel)">Childhood</a></i> (1852)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Boyhood_(novel)" title="Boyhood (novel)">Boyhood</a></i> (1854)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Youth_(Leo_Tolstoy_novel)" class="mw-redirect" title="Youth (Leo Tolstoy novel)">Youth</a></i> (1856)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Cossacks_(novel)" title="The Cossacks (novel)">The Cossacks</a></i> (1863)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/War_and_Peace" title="War and Peace">War and Peace</a></i> (1869)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Anna_Karenina" title="Anna Karenina">Anna Karenina</a></i> (1878)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Resurrection_(Tolstoy_novel)" title="Resurrection (Tolstoy novel)">Resurrection</a></i> (1899)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Hadji_Murat_(novella)" title="Hadji Murat (novella)">Hadji Murat</a></i> (1912)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Novellas</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/A_Landowner%27s_Morning" title="A Landowner's Morning">A Landowner's Morning</a></i> (1856)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Two_Hussars" title="Two Hussars">Two Hussars</a></i> (1856)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Family_Happiness" title="Family Happiness">Family Happiness</a></i> (1859)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Polik%C3%BAshka_(novella)" title="Polikúshka (novella)">Polikúshka</a></i> (1860)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Death_of_Ivan_Ilyich" title="The Death of Ivan Ilyich">The Death of Ivan Ilyich</a></i> (1886)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Walk_in_the_Light_While_There_is_Light" title="Walk in the Light While There is Light">Walk in the Light While There is Light</a></i> (1888)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Kreutzer_Sonata" title="The Kreutzer Sonata">The Kreutzer Sonata</a></i> (1889)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Devil_(novel)" class="mw-redirect" title="The Devil (novel)">The Devil</a></i> (1889)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Master_and_Man_(short_story)" title="Master and Man (short story)">Master and Man</a></i> (1895)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Father_Sergius" title="Father Sergius">Father Sergius</a></i> (1898)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Forged_Coupon" title="The Forged Coupon">The Forged Coupon</a></i> (1904)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Short stories</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Raid_(Tolstoy_story)" title="The Raid (Tolstoy story)">The Raid</a>" (1852)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Cutting_of_the_Forest" title="The Cutting of the Forest">The Cutting of the Forest</a>" (1855)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Sevastopol_Sketches" title="Sevastopol Sketches">Sevastopol Sketches</a>" (1855)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Recollections_of_a_Billiard-marker" title="Recollections of a Billiard-marker">Recollections of a Billiard-marker</a>" (1855)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Snowstorm" title="The Snowstorm">The Snowstorm</a>" (1856)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Lucerne_(by_Tolstoy)" title="Lucerne (by Tolstoy)">Lucerne</a>" (1857)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Albert_(short_story)" title="Albert (short story)">Albert</a>" (1858)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Three_Deaths" title="Three Deaths">Three Deaths</a>" (1859)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Porcelain_Doll_(by_Tolstoy)" title="The Porcelain Doll (by Tolstoy)">The Porcelain Doll</a>" (1863)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/God_Sees_the_Truth,_But_Waits" title="God Sees the Truth, But Waits">God Sees the Truth, But Waits</a>" (1872)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Prisoner_of_the_Caucasus_(story)" title="The Prisoner of the Caucasus (story)">The Prisoner of the Caucasus</a>" (1872)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Bear_Hunt" title="The Bear Hunt">The Bear Hunt</a>" (1872)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/What_Men_Live_By" title="What Men Live By">What Men Live By</a>" (1881)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Diary_of_a_Lunatic" title="Diary of a Lunatic">Diary of a Lunatic</a>" (1884)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Quench_the_Spark" title="Quench the Spark">Quench the Spark</a>" (1885)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/An_Old_Acquaintance" title="An Old Acquaintance">An Old Acquaintance</a>" (1885)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Where_Love_Is,_God_Is" title="Where Love Is, God Is">Where Love Is, God Is</a>" (1885)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Ivan_the_Fool_(story)" title="Ivan the Fool (story)">Ivan the Fool</a>" (1885)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Evil_Allures,_But_Good_Endures" title="Evil Allures, But Good Endures">Evil Allures, But Good Endures</a>" (1885)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Wisdom_of_Children" title="Wisdom of Children">Wisdom of Children</a>" (1885)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Three_Hermits" title="The Three Hermits">The Three Hermits</a>" (1886)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Promoting_a_Devil" title="Promoting a Devil">Promoting a Devil</a>" (1886)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/How_Much_Land_Does_a_Man_Need%3F" title="How Much Land Does a Man Need?">How Much Land Does a Man Need?</a>" (1886)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Grain" title="The Grain">The Grain</a>" (1886)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Repentance_(story)" title="Repentance (story)">Repentance</a>" (1886)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Croesus_and_Fate" title="Croesus and Fate">Croesus and Fate</a>" (1886)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Kholstomer" title="Kholstomer">Kholstomer</a>" (1886)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Two_Brothers_and_the_Gold" title="The Two Brothers and the Gold">The Two Brothers and the Gold</a>" (1886)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/A_Lost_Opportunity" title="A Lost Opportunity">A Lost Opportunity</a>" (1889)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/A_Dialogue_Among_Clever_People" title="A Dialogue Among Clever People">A Dialogue Among Clever People</a>" (1892)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Coffee-House_of_Surat" title="The Coffee-House of Surat">The Coffee-House of Surat</a>" (1893)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Young_Tsar" title="The Young Tsar">The Young Tsar</a>" (1894)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Too_Dear!" title="Too Dear!">Too Dear!</a>" (1897)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Work,_Death,_and_Sickness" title="Work, Death, and Sickness">Work, Death, and Sickness</a>" (1903)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Three_Questions" title="The Three Questions">Three Questions</a>" (1903)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Alyosha_the_Pot" title="Alyosha the Pot">Alyosha the Pot</a>" (1905)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/After_the_Ball_(short_story)" title="After the Ball (short story)">After the Ball</a>" (1911)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Plays</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Power_of_Darkness" title="The Power of Darkness">The Power of Darkness</a></i> (1886)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_First_Distiller" title="The First Distiller">The First Distiller</a></i> (1886)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Light_Shines_in_the_Darkness" title="The Light Shines in the Darkness">The Light Shines in the Darkness</a></i> (1890)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Fruits_of_Enlightenment" title="The Fruits of Enlightenment">The Fruits of Enlightenment</a></i> (1891)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Living_Corpse" title="The Living Corpse">The Living Corpse</a></i> (1900)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Cause_of_It_All" title="The Cause of It All">The Cause of It All</a></i> (1910)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Non-fiction</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/A_History_of_Yesterday" title="A History of Yesterday">A History of Yesterday</a></i> (1851)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Confession_(Leo_Tolstoy)" title="Confession (Leo Tolstoy)">Confession</a></i> (1882)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Gospel_in_Brief" title="The Gospel in Brief">The Gospel in Brief</a></i> (1883)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/What_I_Believe_(Tolstoy_book)" title="What I Believe (Tolstoy book)">What I Believe</a></i> (1884)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/What_Is_to_Be_Done%3F_(Tolstoy)" class="mw-redirect" title="What Is to Be Done? (Tolstoy)">What Is to Be Done?</a></i> (1886)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Kingdom_of_God_Is_Within_You" title="The Kingdom of God Is Within You">The Kingdom of God Is Within You</a></i> (1894)</li> <li><i><a class="mw-selflink selflink">What Is Art?</a></i> (1897)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/A_Letter_to_a_Hindu" title="A Letter to a Hindu">A Letter to a Hindu</a>" (1908)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Inevitable_Revolution" title="The Inevitable Revolution">The Inevitable Revolution</a></i> (1909)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/A_Calendar_of_Wisdom" title="A Calendar of Wisdom">A Calendar of Wisdom</a></i> (1910)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Unfinished</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Decembrists" title="The Decembrists">The Decembrists</a></i> (1884)</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Posthumous_Notes_of_the_Hermit_F%C3%ABdor_Kuzmich" title="Posthumous Notes of the Hermit Fëdor Kuzmich">Posthumous Notes of the Hermit Fëdor Kuzmich</a>" (1905)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Family</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Sophia_Tolstoy" class="mw-redirect" title="Sophia Tolstoy">Sophia</a> (wife)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Alexandra_Tolstaya" title="Alexandra Tolstaya">Alexandra</a> (daughter)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ilya_Tolstoy" title="Ilya Tolstoy">Ilya</a> (son)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lev_Lvovich_Tolstoy" title="Lev Lvovich Tolstoy">Lev Lvovich</a> (son)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tatyana_Sukhotina-Tolstaya" class="mw-redirect" title="Tatyana Sukhotina-Tolstaya">Tatyana</a> (daughter)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Life and legacy</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Yasnaya_Polyana" title="Yasnaya Polyana">Yasnaya Polyana</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tolstoyan_movement" title="Tolstoyan movement">Tolstoyan movement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Christian_anarchism" title="Christian anarchism">Christian anarchism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Departure_of_a_Grand_Old_Man" title="Departure of a Grand Old Man"><i>Departure of a Grand Old Man</i></a> (1912 film)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Lev_Tolstoy_and_the_Russia_of_Nicholas_II" title="Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicholas II">Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicholas II</a></i> (1928 documentary)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Lev_Tolstoy_(film)" title="Lev Tolstoy (film)">Lev Tolstoy</a></i> (1984 film)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/The_Last_Station_(novel)" title="The Last Station (novel)"><i>The Last Station</i></a> (1990 novel, <a href="/wiki/The_Last_Station" title="The Last Station">2009 film)</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Story_of_One_Appointment" title="Story of One Appointment">Story of One Appointment</a></i> (2018 film)</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/A_Couple" title="A Couple">A Couple</a></i> (2022 film)</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Honors</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Tolstoy_Farm" title="Tolstoy Farm">Tolstoy Farm</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tolstoj_quadrangle" title="Tolstoj quadrangle">Tolstoj quadrangle</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Tolstoj_(crater)" title="Tolstoj (crater)">crater</a></li></ul></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Related</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Triumph_of_the_Farmer_or_Industry_and_Parasitism" title="The Triumph of the Farmer or Industry and Parasitism">The Triumph of the Farmer or Industry and Parasitism</a></i> (1888)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Vladimir_Chertkov" title="Vladimir Chertkov">Vladimir Chertkov</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Aylmer_and_Louise_Maude" title="Aylmer and Louise Maude">Aylmer and Louise Maude</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Category:Translators_of_Leo_Tolstoy" title="Category:Translators of Leo Tolstoy">Translators of Tolstoy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Category:Leo_Tolstoy_scholars" title="Category:Leo Tolstoy scholars">Tolstoy scholars</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow hlist" colspan="2"><div> <ul><li><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><span title="Category"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/16px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="mw-file-element" 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