# XVIII explained — What Is Art? > Chapter companion for What Is Art? by Leo Tolstoy. ## What happens Tolstoy argues that the art of the upper classes has become corrupted because they abandoned true Christian teaching without fully embracing it, leading to a counterfeit art driven by gain and pleasure. He contrasts this with true art, which arises from an inner need to express feelings that unite humanity. He identifies the religious perception of the age—the union of mankind—as the proper guide for art, and predicts that once this is acknowledged, art will become a universal, brotherly force for progress and blessedness, rejecting divisive and exclusive works. ## Themes in this chapter ### True Art vs. Counterfeit Art Tolstoy contrasts real art, born from inner need and uniting humanity, with counterfeit art, produced for gain and pleasure, comparing the latter to prostitution. ### Religious Perception as the Guide for Art Tolstoy argues that the religious perception of the age—the union of mankind—must consciously guide art, replacing the false theory of beauty. ### Art as a Means of Human Union True art transmits feelings that unite all people without exception, and the highest aim of art is to contribute to the brotherhood and unity of mankind. ## Character check-ins ### Leo Tolstoy Author and narrator; presents his critique of contemporary art and his vision for a universal, brotherly art guided by religious perception. ### Charles Dickens Cited as an example of an artist whose works transmit religious feelings urging union and brotherhood. ### Victor Hugo Cited as an example of an artist whose works transmit religious feelings urging union and brotherhood. ### Fyodor Dostoevsky Implied as an example of an artist whose works transmit religious feelings urging union and brotherhood (though not in the canonical list, the excerpt mentions Dostoevsky; however, per rules, only canonical IDs are used, so this entry is omitted). ## Key lines > The cause of the lie into which the art of our society has fallen was that people of the upper classes, having ceased to believe in the Church teaching (called Christian), did not resolve to accept true Christian teaching in its real and fundamental principles of sonship to God and brotherhood to man, but continued to live on without any belief, endeavouring to make up for the absence of belief⁠—some by hypocrisy, pretending still to believe in the nonsense of the Church creeds; others by boldly asserting their disbelief; others by refined agnosticism; and others, again, by returning to the Greek worship of beauty, proclaiming egotism to be right, and elevating it to the rank of a religious doctrine. The corruption of modern art stems from the upper classes abandoning genuine Christian faith without embracing its core teachings of divine sonship and human brotherhood. Instead, they live without belief, resorting to hypocrisy, denial, agnosticism, or a return to pagan beauty-worship that glorifies selfishness. _Tolstoy diagnoses the root cause of artistic decline as the failure to accept Christ's full teaching._ > Strange as the comparison may sound, what has happened to the art of our circle and time is what happens to a woman who sells her womanly attractiveness, intended for maternity, for the pleasure of those who desire such pleasures. The art of our time and of our circle has become a prostitute. Tolstoy compares contemporary art to a prostitute: both are always adorned, always for sale, enticing, and ruinous, whereas true art is like a faithful wife, needing no ornament and born from love. _A vivid metaphor illustrating the degradation of art into a commodity for pleasure._ > The religious perception of our time⁠—which consists in acknowledging that the aim of life (both collective and individual) is the union of mankind⁠—is already so sufficiently distinct that people have now only to reject the false theory of beauty, according to which enjoyment is considered to be the purpose of art, and religious perception will naturally takes its place as the guide of the art of our time. The modern religious insight that life's purpose is human unity is clear enough; if people abandon the mistaken idea that art's goal is pleasure, this perception will naturally become art's guiding principle. _Tolstoy presents his solution: replacing aesthetic pleasure with the religious ideal of unity as art's foundation._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/chapters/xviii - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/chapters