Notes on Tolstoy, What is Art? Ch. 16 (B)

(Originally Written March 7, 2008 in the Journal)

What is Art?
Leo Tolstoy
Chapter 16

History has shown that only religion has aided in the progress of humanity.

"The great evil is not that men do not know God, but they have set up instead of God, that which is not God" (Maude, 235). So it is with art today.

"Christian perception gave another, a new direction to all human feelings, and therefore completely altered both the content and significance of art" (Maude, 237).

"The essence of the Christian perception consists in the recognition by every man of his sonship to God and of the consequent union of men with God and with one another" (Maude, 238).

True art has the characteristic of uniting all men, not just a few. Non-Christian art may unite a few people, but in uniting those few they divide them from the many. Patriotic art is a prime example of this. Church art is another example. Good Christian art must transmit a feeling to all men regardless of their demographics.

Only two feelings unite all men:

1. Feeling stemming from the universal sonship of God and universal brotherhood.
2. Feelings of common life accessible to all men.

Only two objects for art can be considered good:

1. That which flows from love of God and the relationship of God to man and man to man.
2. That which flows from the most basic feelings felt by every human being.

The first is religious art; the second is universal art.

Religious art is manifested best in words, but can also be manifested in sculpture and painting. Universal art is best manifested in music, but can be manifested in dance, architecture, words, painting and sculpture as well.

The overburdening of the viewer with details of the producer blocks the transmission of feelings. The simpler, the better. In true art, feelings are expressed without superfluous extras.

The more detailed a story becomes, the more provincial it becomes and thus, the less universal it is.

In music, the melody is accessible to every one, but when extremely complex harmonies are added, the melody is lost and the piece loses universality.

Whether I like a thing or not, if it fails to be religious or universal art, I must consider it bad art. Only by judging first if a work transmits feelings or not and then deciding whether the thing unites or divides people can we decide if the work is real or counterfeit and if it is real, we can then decide if it is good or bad.

Art is spiritual food.