The Art's Question

In our time, the future of art is to help in the transmission of the realm of feeling the fact from the realm of reason. According to Tolstoy's theory of what is art, compared to Michelangelo's theory, they each believed that art unifies and connects each different with humanity and its highest destiny. Though they differ on modifications on how they view reality than in their views of art all through the modern period, Tolstoy tried to retain the views of Christianity that are essential on the value of the life of the human in the face of scientific subculture and industrial that complicated it. The theory of Tolstoy rejected any artwork definition based on beauty notion since beauty could not be defined objectively. The mere definition of art is what pleases us which is unique for each person. The only precise definition of art as defined by Tolstoy lies in its function to transmit feeling and the values of the transmitted values, the form of art as an object depicting it individuality, sincerity, clarity and finally on the quality or the truth of the feelings transmitted. Using the image of Saint George slaying the dragon as depicted by Carlo Crivelli, we are going to apply three elements of Tolstoy’s theory on what is art to explain how the Saint George image justifies the work of art (Diffey & Terry n.p)Tolstoy says that the function of art is to transmit feelings. If only the audience and the author are infected by the feelings, then it is art. He believes that art communicates feelings and it is an activity by the human consisting of means of external signs to hand other people the same experience of the feelings one has lived through it. Art plays a key role in humankind development as opposed to language that only communicates thoughts and propositions. For instance, the legendary of Saint George as a dragon slayer could be a way of transmitting feelings to the audience that George was a hero since by eleventh century he was a model who was very popular. Saint George as a dragon slayer and a horseman is related to wells and water. Some would also base their argument that the princess in the icon could depict a Christian who converted upon witnessing Saint George slaying the dragon to save her the infectiousness of art is a criterion used for judging the form of art as art. The effectiveness of art in performing its functions of feeling transmission irrespective of the value of the transmitted value is one of the ways of judging art (Salomon & Xavier 638)Tolstoy says that one way of identifying those infected by the artist’s feeling is on how one is united to the artist to the extent of feeling they own that work as their own and as what they have desired to express for long. A genuine work of art destroys the difference between the artist and himself and also from himself to the audience receiving this work of art. In freeing our personality from isolation and separation, in uniting with others, lie the primary characteristics and the attractive force of art that is great. The three conditions that determine the infectiousness of art as identified by Tolstoy are the clarity of art that shows the purer the feeling is, the fewer the distractions it has in the art. Taking the example of the graphic image of the Saint George slaying the dragon transcribed into relief and delivering princess who is in captive. This sculpture shows a desire for unity and compositional clarity that is heralding the renaissance. The second condition is on the individuality of the feeling transmitted, that makes it more infectious than the general feeling. The image of the dragon being slain by Saint George reveals the infectiousness of the story and bringing the story to life. The crevice present there shows the dragon lives and in the background shows the castle’s battlements and finally, the more the strength and sincerity of the feeling of the artist, the more it becomes infectious. Sincerity, according to Tolstoy, was the most key of the three. He says that the primary causes of bad art were its artificiality or insincerity as seen in the space that is not unified in the painting. The unrealistic space, decoration and flat form show the way the artist attempted to flatten the key figures using petite modeling which are a characteristic of the style of the gothic (Diffey & Terry n.p)The quality of the feelings transmitted is one of the criterions used to judge the content of art. Through language, thought progresses, and through art, the feelings of man progress. The religion of the time determines the value of the feelings that are transmitted by art, which is the highest point of understanding of human life meaning attained by a particular society of age. Feelings of different types have been valued in art at various times amounting to being amongst the first socio-cultural theories of art. According to Tolstoy, the religion of his time was on the view that the well-being of people lies in the brotherhood growth among men with one another in their loving harmony. The two types of feelings in consonance with this type of religion are the simple universal feelings to all that is common. These are the type of feelings that is common to every man, independent of education, class, and culture that is most effective to bring about unity between man and man according to highest understanding of the religion. Universal art is good compared to the bad exclusive art. For instance, the art was conventionally accepted as it depicted Saint George as a universal hero riding on a horse to rescue the princess, with a well-fought war. The second religious feeling is the union of man with God and neighbors, as well as disapproval feelings for issues that can divide men. Therefore, art that divides races, nations or races would, therefore, be bad. For instance, the image of Saint George in Russia slaying the dragon portrayed the dragon as a heathen country that was being converted to Christianity, which to some extent could contribute to dividing the nation in religion basis (Salomon & Xavier 638)During Tolstoy's time, he criticized the art, and he felt that during the Renaissance, the art of the culture had lost the content of its religion and had become an attempt to merely produce all that could please some certain group of people of a particular class. From the beginning of that time, Tolstoy had a belief that the majority of the people had stopped living and believing according to the particular religion of their time. Art had gone adrift to lose its subject matter on religion in its attempt to produce only the pleasure. The type of art during Tolstoy’s time produced the feelings of sexual desire, worthlessness, and pride of life majorly. Like seen in the case when Saint George sacrificed to fight the dragon to save the princess who secretly he envied and the art had also become exclusive, since different cultures and classes were pleased by different things, making art more specialized to the experiences and tastes of less universal and certain people. The art of Saint George slaying the dragon particularly secluded people of different religion from Christianity. It, therefore, shows how Saint George before slaying the dragon invoked the holy trinity then proceeded to kill the dragon. Though a myth, it was biased of the religion. Tolstoy also said that art during his time had become insincere, he further attested to the fact that art was used as a means of making money, schools also came up with techniques of teaching their students on producing arts of pleasure. Artists from these particular schools only mastered the techniques of pleasing their audience without being original, innovative and feeling anything. The current and latest portraits of Saint George slaying the dragon have been modified to suit the digital generation so as to be attractive as compared to how it previously was during the Tolstoy's era (Diffey & Terry n.p)Tolstoy’s theory faced some simple criticisms from different areas. The first criticism was that art could produce feelings in the audience present without necessarily affecting the artist’s feelings, the assumption made by the critic is that art expresses but does not transmit feelings. This is a direct attack on the Tolstoy’s sincerity criterion. Relating to the unrealistic space, decoration and flat form shows the way the artist attempted to flatten the key figures using little modeling of the image of Saint George slaying the dragon which is a characteristic of the style of the gothic (Salomon & Xavier 638)Tolstoy's application of the religious criterion may also be criticized that art may transmit other feelings that are more important. Therefore, one would not criticize his view of art, but his views on religion. The last criticism comes as a result of Tolstoy only thinking that people get infected by the feeling of another, something that cannot be known whether the audience feels what the artist felt or just a unique feeling of their own. These suggestions show that the audiences, not Tolstoy have the understanding of what the feeling is and how it could be possibly shared with others. This view of reality complicates Tolstoy’s view of reality that is made on the transmission of beauty or form problematic in a way that either Tolstoy or Michelangelo didn't. The interpretation of the sculpture, especially of the crevices, could raise another argument that it is not where the dragon stays but rather the lizards, so art could not dictate how the audience could interpret the art (Diffey & Terry n.p)There’s a shift in how reality is viewed and an art viewed. This has been from a paradigm of the shift from various from Michelangelo to Tolstoy until the post-modern age. Narrowing down to Tolstoy's view of the nineteenth century, he said that there's more to the world than to what the eye meets, but through language and reason we cannot reach it. The only thing seen is the personal representations of the essential reality that lies beneath the surface. He argued that feelings express reality immediately more than language. In general, art transmits feelings. The post-modern view of art has no more to the world than to what the eye meets, and is, therefore, created how it meets the eye and could be transformed. Science has played a role in ensuring that art becomes impossible to understand the feelings of the states of the brain and on how the particular feelings could be transmitted making it difficult to understand Tolstoy's theory. Science brings a different perspective on how the world appears to people, bringing another point of view to see precisely the activities of human to be the construction of realities. In general, making arts to transmit points of view (Salomon & Xavier 638)In conclusion, the Tolstoy's theory of what is art focused majorly on three elements that are the feeling that the object could produce inside the viewer. He argued that the artwork function was the transmission of the feeling. The second element was the consideration of artwork as an object itself. This could, therefore, determine the infectiousness of the artwork by Tolstoy. Finally, Tolstoy believed that artwork is something the object represents or something it points beyond the object. The truth and quality of the feelings of the religion transmitted affects the overall value of art for Tolstoy. Therefore, the use of the image of Saint George to justify the theory of Tolstoy on what is art has both justified and raised points of critics as discussed earlier (Diffey & Terry n.p)ReferencesDiffey, Terry. Tolstoy's' What is Art?'. Vol. 4. Routledge, 2014.Salomon, Xavier F. "Divine Crivelli: this overdue look at Crivelli challenges our view of the Renaissance." Apollo. Vol. 183. No. 638. Apollo Magazine Ltd., 2016.