Quotation
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“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 other people are infected by these feelings, and also experience them.”
Leo Tolstoy · Moral and political thought · Modern · 1897
What does it mean?
Art, on this view, is the passing on of a feeling the artist really had. Beauty and pleasure are not the test; sincerity and how widely the feeling spreads are. He used this test to reject much of high culture, including Shakespeare and Wagner and most of his own novels. Critics say a definition that throws out King Lear has gone wrong somewhere, and that 'infection' ignores form and craft.
Did Leo Tolstoy really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. His own definition, italicised in the text, checked against the Project Gutenberg text of Maude's translation, chapter 5. Maude worked from the uncensored manuscript.
Where it comes from
What Is Art?, chapter 5 (tr. Aylmer Maude)
Approximate date: 1897.
How to use it
After a film or song moves you, ask what feeling it passed on and whether you think the maker felt it. Then ask whether that is the only thing that made it good.
A mindset reading
Watch what a definition rules out. If you accept the definition, you have to accept what it excludes, or revise it.
Understand the philosophy
What Is Art?, 1897 to 1898, chapter 5 for the definition. Orwell's 1947 essay 'Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool' is the best-known reply.
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FAQ
What does it mean?
Art, on this view, is the passing on of a feeling the artist really had. Beauty and pleasure are not the test; sincerity and how widely the feeling spreads are. He used this test to reject much of high culture, including Shakespeare and Wagner and most of his own novels. Critics say a definition that throws out King Lear has gone wrong somewhere, and that 'infection' ignores form and craft.
Did Leo Tolstoy really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. His own definition, italicised in the text, checked against the Project Gutenberg text of Maude's translation, chapter 5. Maude worked from the uncensored manuscript.
Which work is it in?
What Is Art?, chapter 5 (tr. Aylmer Maude) Approximate date: 1897.