Tolstoy on Art
David Banach
Department of Philosophy
Tolstoy on Art
David Banach
Department of Philosophy
Tolstoy a Transitional Figure
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Tolstoy bridges the gap between the Realism of
the Renaissance and the Relativism of the PostModern era.
Reason, Feeling, and Suggestion are the three
means of human progress, and Feeling is classed
with Reason as a force for progress.
Feeling is not a window onto God, nor a mere
physiological reaction. It is a dimly felt
connection to the mysterious under-current
of tendency and force (will) that underlies
the veneer of this phenomenal physical
reality.
Three Elements of an Artwork
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1. The effect or feeling
that the object
produces inside me,
the viewer. (Feeling)
2. The artwork itself
as an object. (Form)
(Individuality, Clarity,
Sincerity.)
3. Something beyond
the object to which it
points, or that it
represents. (Meaning,
Content)
Three Elements of an Artwork
Three Elements of an Artwork
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1. The effect or feeling that the object produces
inside me, the viewer. (Feeling) The function of
the art work is the transmission of feeling for
Tolstoy.
2. The artwork itself as an object. (Form) This is
the mechanism or means of infectiousness of
the artwork for Tolstoy. (Individuality, Clarity,
Sincerity.)
3. Something beyond the object to which it
points, or that it represents. (Meaning, Content)
The quality or truth of the religious feelings
transmitted affects the value of the art for
Tolstoy. (Religious Feelings of Unity and Simple
Universal Feelings)
The function of art is the
transmission of feeling
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"If only the spectators or auditors are infected by
the feelings which the author has felt, it is art."
(V)
"Art is a human activity consisting in this, that
one man consciously by means of certain
external signs, hands on to others feelings he has
lived through, and that others are infected by
these feelings and also experience them." (V)
Language communicates propositions and
thoughts. Art communicates feelings. Together
they are the means of human progress. Art plays
a central role in the development of humankind.
The criterion for judging the form of
art, or art as art, is infectiousness
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One way of judging art is by its effectiveness in performing
its function of transmitting feeling, irrespective of the value
of the feelings transmitted.
"The stronger the infection the better is the art, as art."
(XV)
One can know one is infected by the feeling of the artist
because one "is so united to the artist that he feels as if the
work were his own and not someone else's--as if what it
expresses were just what he had long been wishing to
express. A real work of art destroys . . . the separation
between himself and the artist, and not that alone, but also
between himself and all whose minds receive this work of
art. In this freeing of our personality from its separation
and isolation, in this uniting with others, lies the chief
characteristic and the great attractive force of art." (XV)
The infectiousness of art is mainly determined by its form.
Tolstoy identifies three conditions that determine
infectiousness:
Three Conditions of Infectiousness
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1. Individuality or Specificity: The more specific
or individual the feeling transmitted, the more
infectious it is. The feeling of joy one's birthday
surrounded by friends is more effectively
transmitted than the general feeling of joy.
2. Clarity: The more pure the feeling
transmitted, and the fewer the distractions, the
more infectious.
3. Sincerity: The more strongly and genuinely
the artist feels the emotion to be transmitted the
more infectious the feeling. This is, by far, the
most important of the three conditions. One of
the main causes of bad art for Tolstoy was
insincerity or artificiality.
“The Kreutzer Sonata” (XXIII, 138-140)
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And a terrible thing is music in general. What is it ? Why does
it do what it does?
They say that music stirs the soul. Stupidity! A lie! . . . Music
makes me forget my real situation. It transports me into a
state which is not my own. Under the influence of music I
really seem to feel what I do not feel, to understand what I do
not understand, to have powers which I cannot have.
. . . And music transports me immediately into the condition
of soul in which he who wrote the music found himself at that
time. I become confounded with his soul, and with him I pass
from one condition to another. . . . For instance, a military
march is played; the soldier passes to the sound of this
march, and the music is finished. A dance is played; I have
finished dancing, and the music is finished. A mass is sung; I
receive the sacrament, and again the music is finished.
. . . One would have said that new sentiments, new
virtualities, of which I was formerly ignorant, had developed
in me. 'Ah, yes, that's it! Not at all as I lived and thought
before! This is the right way to live!‘ This music transported
me into an unknown world . . . .
“The Kreutzer Sonata” (XXIII, 138-140)
How does Music produce feeling?
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The German Philosopher Arthur
Schopenhauer thought that Music was a
direct manifestation of the will or tendency
the lies beneath the reality of the senses.
What is feeling?
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Will and Representation (Schopenhauer)
Representation refers to the surface appearances
governed by the laws of science. Will refers to
the force or tendency beneath the surface that
moves and enforms events independently of
causation.
War and Peace: A world of historical events
necessitated by social forces and a world of social
relations governed by the personalities and
struggles of human agents.
Rage
Tranquility
Despair
Delight
The criterion for the content of art is the
religious quality of the feelings
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Thought progresses through language, and the
feelings of Man progress through art. The value
of the feelings transmitted by art is determined
by the religion of the time, which is the highest
level of understanding of the meaning of human
life attained by the society of an age.
The religion of Tolstoy's time, according to
Tolstoy, was the view that our well-being "lies in
the growth of brotherhood among men--in their
loving harmony with one another" (XVI)
Two types of feelings are in consonance with this
religion:
Two criteria for judging the
content of art
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1. Religious feelings of the unity of man with
God and neighbor, as well as feelings of
disapproval for things that divide men. Art that
divides classes, races, or nations would,
therefore, be bad.
2. Simple Universal feelings common to all.
Those feelings that are common to all men,
independently of class, education, and culture
most effectively bring about a state of union of
man with man which is the meaning of life
according to our highest understanding, or
religion. Universal art is good. Exclusive art is
bad.
Examples of Painting
Tolstoy disliked portrayals of the
miraculous.
Vasnetsov “Flying Carpet’ 1880 and
“Alioneshka”
Jean-François Millet – Man with a hoe
“It is apparent that the naked woman pleased the artist very much, but that Anthony did not concern
him at all ; and that, so far from the temptation being terrible to him (the artist) it is highly agreeable.
And therefore if there be any art in this picture, it is very nasty and false.” XIV
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JC Dollman “Temptation of Saint Anthony”
“And one feels that the artist loved this girl, and that she too loves. And this picture, by an
artist who, I think, is not very widely known, is an admirable and true work of art.”XIV
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Walter Langley “Motherless" 1895
Examples of Music
Richard Wagner , Siegfried
Beethoven 9th Symphony
Bach’s Aria on a G String
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Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) rec. 1903;
Berlin
Chopin, Nocturne
Literature Promoting Higher Religious
Feeling according to Tolstoy
The Robbers by Schiller
 Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables
 The novels and stories of Dickens: The
Tale of Two Cities, The Christmas Carol,
The Chimes, and others
 Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 Dostoevsky’s works especially his Memoirs
from the House of Death
 Adam Bede by George Eliot.
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Bad Literature
Baudelaire’s poetry
 War and Peace
 Anna Karenina
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“God Sees the Truth but Waits” 1872
Shorter version of story is told by peasant
(Platon Karataev) to main character
(Pierre) of War and Peace
 Identified by Tolstoy as his best work.
 Published in collection of tales for children.
 What makes it so good?
 What is its religious meaning?
 Why does God wait?
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Tolstoy’s Critique of Modern Art
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(1) Lost its religious subject matter and
attempted only to produce pleasure. The art of
his time produced mainly feelings of Pride,
Sexual Desire, and of the Worthlessness of Life
(2) become exclusive; since different classes and
cultures were pleased by different things, art
became more specialized to the tastes and
experiences of certain peoples and less universal.
(3) Insincere: As art became a way of making
money, schools sprang up that taught techniques
of producing certain types of pleasure. Artists
could master these techniques and please an
audience without having anything new to say or
without really feeling anything.
Art and the Meaning of Life
Religion is the best solution to the problem
of the meaning of life. Why is the meaning
of life a problem and what kind of solution
do we need.
 How do we continue to take our actions
and affairs seriously and engage in them
as if they matter in a world what is
increasingly foreign and detached from
the basic concerns of human life?
 Where do we get the spark or “Umphh” to
move through life?
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What does our Art say about our view
of the Meaning of Life.
What is the highest answer to the problem
of the meaning of life to which our
generation has reached?
 Have we made the progress that Tolstoy
envisioned?
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Katy Swiftpinkclarkgagaswiftson
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What is this saying about the meaning of
life?
Freaky Leashed Sonic Teen
Institutionalized Spirit Mastadon Hearts
Feistaelson Owlcolbyael
Views of Art and Views of Reality
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A.
Michelangelo's Neo-Platonic View: There is more to the world than
meets the eye, and it is directly visible to us through the use of the
faculties given to us by God. Not only can we directly apprehend the more
basic forms that are the reality that lies behind the world, but to an artist
whose soul is alive, this material world is like a ghost world filled with
windows through which shine the more vibrant realities of another world.
Art aims at opening these windows for others and the transmission of
these forms or realities. Art transmits realities.
B.
Tolstoy's Nineteenth Century View: There is more to the world than
meets the eye but through reason and language we cannot reach it. We
only see our own representations of the more basic reality or Will that lies
beneath the surface. (Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860). Feeling
objectifies or expresses this reality more immediately than language. Art
transmits feelings.
C.
The Post-Modern View (Picasso?): There is no more to the world than
what meets the eye, and we create how it meets the eye and can
transform it. Because science has made feelings seem to be states of the
brain and made it hard to see how we could transmit these feelings, we
can no longer understand Tolstoy's theory. And once we see science as
just another way that the world appears to us, just another point of view,
it appears that the specifically human activity is art, the construction of
realities. Art transmits points of view.
Art, Reality, and the Artist
This material world
Neo-Platonism Matter=Copies of Form
(Michelangelo)
Real World
Form
Late Nineteenth
Century
(Tolstoy)
Postmodern
(Picasso)
Will:
unstructured
tendency
None
Representation: Objectification of
will formed by our concepts and
categories
Socio-cultural construct.
Role of Artist
Opens windows to
reality and coaxes us to
climb through
Transmits feeling.
Connects souls to souls.
Feeling
Apprehension of form and
a type of union with it
Most basic and direct
objectification or
expression of will
Constructs new realities Effects in the brain