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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 Ref
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.
| 22710 | People estimate art according to their moral values [Tolstoy] |
| 8123 | The purpose of art is to help mankind to evolve better, more socially beneficial feelings [Tolstoy] |
| 8125 | The upper classes put beauty first, and thus freed themselves from morality [Tolstoy] |
| 8124 | The highest feelings of mankind can only be transmitted by art [Tolstoy] |
| 8064 | We separate the concept of beauty from goodness, unlike the ancients [Tolstoy] |
| 8121 | Art is when one man uses external signs to hand on his feelings to another man [Tolstoy] |
| 8122 | True works of art transmit completely new feelings [Tolstoy] |