Single Idea 8121

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 4. Art as Expression]

Full Idea

Art is a human activity in which one man consciously by means of external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and other are infected by those feelings, and also experience them.

Gist of Idea

Art is when one man uses external signs to hand on his feelings to another man

Source

Leo Tolstoy (What is Art? [1898], Ch.5)

Book Reference

Tolstoy,Leo: 'What is Art? and Essays on Art', ed/tr. Maude,A [OUP 1975], p.123


A Reaction

Such definitions always work better for some art forms than for others. This may fit 'Anna Karenin' quite well, but probably not Bach's 'Art of Fugue'. Writing obscenities on someone's front door would fit this definition.