# What Is Art? — Character guide

> Key figures in What Is Art? by Leo Tolstoy.

- [Leo Tolstoy](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/tolstoy.md): Author and narrator of the treatise, arguing for a moral theory of art.
- [Richard Wagner](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/wagner.md): Composer whose operas are analyzed as examples of counterfeit art.
- [Siegfried](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/siegfried.md): Hero of Wagner's Ring cycle, discussed as a mythical figure.
- [Brünnhilda](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/brunnhilda.md): Valkyrie in Wagner's Ring, central to the opera's plot.
- [Ludwig van Beethoven](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/beethoven.md): Composer cited as an example of true art by Tolstoy.
- [Charles Baudelaire](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/baudelaire.md): French poet criticized for decadent and obscure art.
- [Plato](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/plato.md): Ancient philosopher whose views on art are discussed.
- [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/hegel.md): German philosopher whose aesthetic theories are critiqued.
- [Immanuel Kant](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/kant.md): Philosopher whose concept of disinterested pleasure is examined.
- [M. Schasler](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/schasler.md): German aesthetician referenced in the discussion of art theory.
- [Alexander Pushkin](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/pushkin.md): Russian poet mentioned as an example of national art.
- [Paul Verlaine](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/verlaine.md): French poet associated with Symbolist movement.
- [Jean-Marie Guyau](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/guyau.md): French philosopher whose aesthetic ideas are referenced.
- [John Ruskin](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/ruskin.md): English art critic whose moral approach to art is noted.
- [Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/schelling.md): German philosopher of Romanticism and aesthetics.
- [Friedrich Schiller](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/schiller.md): German poet and philosopher on aesthetic education.
- [William Shakespeare](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/shakespeare.md): Playwright cited as universal artist by Tolstoy.
- [Johann Gottlieb Fichte](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/fichte.md): German idealist philosopher mentioned in aesthetic debates.
- [Arthur Schopenhauer](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/schopenhauer.md): Philosopher whose pessimism and art theory are discussed.
- [Aristotle](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/aristotle.md): Ancient Greek philosopher on mimesis and catharsis.
- [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/goethe.md): German writer and poet referenced in art discussions.
- [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/nietzsche.md): Philosopher critiqued for his views on art and morality.
- [Charles Dickens](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/dickens.md): English novelist mentioned as an example of popular art.
- [Victor Hugo](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/hugo.md): French writer cited in context of romantic art.
- [Herbert Spencer](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/spencer.md): English philosopher whose evolutionary aesthetics are noted.
- [Charles Darwin](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/darwin.md): Naturalist whose theory of evolution is referenced.
- [Dante Alighieri](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/dante.md): Italian poet mentioned as a master of Christian art.
- [Michelangelo](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/michelangelo.md): Renaissance artist cited for religious art.
- [Raphael](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/raphael.md): Renaissance painter referenced in art criticism.
- [Homer](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/homer.md): Ancient Greek epic poet mentioned as universal artist.
- [Socrates](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/socrates.md): Greek philosopher whose dialogues on art are invoked.
- [Voltaire](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/voltaire.md): French Enlightenment writer cited in aesthetic debates.
- [Johann Sebastian Bach](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/bach.md): Composer mentioned as example of religious music.
- [Frédéric Chopin](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/chopin.md): Polish composer referenced in discussion of music.
- [Rudyard Kipling](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/kipling.md): British writer mentioned as a popular author.
- [Maurice Maeterlinck](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/maeterlinck.md): Belgian playwright associated with Symbolist movement.
- [William Morris](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/morris.md): English designer and socialist writer on art.
- [Francis of Assisi](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/francis_of_assisi.md): Saint cited as example of religious feeling in art.
- [Mary Magdalene](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/mary_magdalene.md): Biblical figure referenced in religious art discussion.
- [Jesus Christ](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/christ.md): Central figure of Christian art and Tolstoy's moral ideal.
- [Wotan](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/wotan.md): God in Wagner's Ring cycle, discussed as mythological figure.
- [Siegmund](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/siegmund.md): Hero in Wagner's Die Walküre, part of the Ring cycle.
- [Mime](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/mime.md): Dwarf in Wagner's Ring, a character from the operas.
- [Alberich](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/alberich.md): Nibelung dwarf in Wagner's Ring, central to the plot.
- [Hagen](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/hagen.md): Villain in Wagner's Götterdämmerung, from the Ring cycle.
- [Gunther](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/gunther.md): King in Wagner's Ring, a character from the operas.
- [Sieglinda](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/sieglinda.md): Heroine in Wagner's Die Walküre, from the Ring cycle.
- [Hunding](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/hunding.md): Character in Wagner's Die Walküre, Sieglinda's husband.
- [Romeo](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/romeo.md): Shakespearean character cited as example of love in art.
- [Juliet](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/juliet.md): Shakespearean character cited alongside Romeo.
- [Joseph](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/joseph.md): Biblical figure mentioned in context of religious art.
- [Stenka Razin](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/stenka_razin.md): Cossack leader referenced as a folk hero in Russian art.
- [Viktor Vasnetsov](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/vasnetsoff.md): Russian painter mentioned for folkloric themes.
- [Richard Kralik](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/kralik.md): Austrian writer and philosopher referenced in aesthetics.
- [Johann Joachim Winckelmann](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/winckelmann.md): German art historian and archaeologist on Greek art.
- [Stéphane Mallarmé](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/mallarme.md): French Symbolist poet criticized for obscurity.
- [Eugène Véron](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/veron.md): French aesthetician whose work is discussed.
- [James Sully](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/sully.md): English psychologist and aesthetician referenced.
- [Professor Grote](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/grote.md): Scholar referenced in discussion of Greek aesthetics.
- [Richard Knight](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/knight.md): English aesthetician on the picturesque.
- [Victor Cousin](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/cousin.md): French philosopher of eclecticism in aesthetics.
- [Francis Hutcheson](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/hutcheson.md): Scottish philosopher on moral sense and beauty.
- [Théodore Jouffroy](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/jouffroy.md): French philosopher on aesthetics and common sense.
- [Kirkmann](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/kirkmann.md): German aesthetician referenced in the text.
- [Charles Bénard](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/benard.md): French aesthetician and translator of Hegel.
- [Walter Langley](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/langley.md): English painter mentioned in art criticism.
- [Jean Moréas](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/moras.md): Greek-born French poet of Symbolist movement.
- [Max Klinger](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/klinger.md): German symbolist artist and sculptor referenced.
- [Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/baumgarten.md): German philosopher who coined the term aesthetics.
- [Adolphe Pictet](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/pictet.md): Swiss linguist and aesthetician cited in the text.
- [Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/what_is_art_se/characters/alexee_tolstoy.md): Russian poet and novelist, distant relative of Leo.

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