Tolstoy's Philosophy of Art

Tolstoy's Philosophy of Art

Tolstoy approaches art with a very specific and narrow view of what is

real and what is counterfeit in classifying artwork and what makes a

work of art good or bad. Tolstoy believes that a work of art can be

classified as "real" if and only if "one man consciously by means of

certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived

through, and that others are infected by these feelings and also

experience them" (10). He believes that art can only be defined as

real by its ability to make the audience feel what the artist had

intended to convey with his/her artwork. The feelings the artist

intends to convey must also be sincere and true feelings based on

personal experience, expressed to the audience in such a way that the

viewer/listener feels as if the artist is merely expressing something

he/she feels and has always longed to express. To offset this

definition, Tolstoy defines counterfeit art as having "no impression

on anyone" (513). He says that distinguishing real art from

counterfeit art can be done simply by determining the "infectiousness

of art" (514). Tolstoy claims that any piece of art, no matter how

beautiful, intriguing, interesting, poetic, striking, or realistic

cannot be defined as real unless it also maintains this quality of

infectiousness.

After defining the difference between real and counterfeit art,

Tolstoy goes on to relay the difference between what classifies good

and bad art. Tolstoy cl...