Single Idea 8064

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality]

Full Idea

The ancients had not that conception of beauty separated from goodness which forms the basis and aim of aesthetics in our time.

Gist of Idea

We separate the concept of beauty from goodness, unlike the ancients

Source

Leo Tolstoy (What is Art? [1898], Ch.3)

Book Reference

Tolstoy,Leo: 'What is Art? and Essays on Art', ed/tr. Maude,A [OUP 1975], p.91


A Reaction

This is written at around the time of the Aesthetic Movement, but Tolstoy's own novels are intensely moral. This separation makes abstract painting possible.